Adventure Tourism Experience and Motivations
Summary
Adventure tourism encompasses travel that involves engagement with natural environments and physically or culturally challenging activities. Motivations range from the pursuit of thrill and novelty to personal growth, health benefits and cultural immersion. Hard and soft adventure categories differentiate based on perceived risk and skill requirements; both offer experiential outcomes such as flow states, heightened awareness and social bonding. Recent frameworks emphasise the connections between adventure experiences and subjective well-being, highlighting dimensions such as extraordinary experiences, personal development and community. Technological advances, including AI-driven recommendation systems, are reshaping how trips are planned and personalised, while considerations of sustainability and local knowledge ensure destinations remain resilient. Globally, adventure tourism generates economic, social and environmental returns, informing destination management, product design and policy development. Practical applications include tailored trip design, risk management strategies and well-being-oriented programmes, underscoring the sector’s integration of human, ecological and technological systems.
Research from Nature Portfolio
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Adventure Tourism Experience and Motivations publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in adventure tourism experience and motivations across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Adventure tourism: Travel involving engagement with challenging activities in natural or cultural settings.
Hard adventure: High-risk activities requiring specialised skills, equipment and experience.
Soft adventure: Low-risk, immersive activities offering moderate challenge and broad accessibility.
Subjective well-being: Individuals’ evaluations of their own life satisfaction and emotional states arising from experiences.
Recommender system: AI-driven technology that suggests tailored activities or destinations based on user profiles and preferences.
References
- Recommender Systems for Outdoor Adventure Tourism Sports: Hiking, Running and Climbing. Human-Centric Intelligent Systems (2023).
- Conceptualising the power of outdoor adventure activities for subjective well-being: A systematic literature review. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism (2023).
- The Preference Analysis for Hikers’ Choice of Hiking Trail. Sustainability (2022).
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