Adventure Tourism Management

262 Pages·2009·2.28 MB·English

by  Ralf Buckley (Auth.)

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Dedication
This book is dedicated to two remarkable athletes who have used extraor-
dinary feats ofadventure to promoteconservation.
To raise money for Save the Rhino, Christina Franco has run the 6-day
Marathon des Sables across the Sahara, and won a ski race to the North
Magnetic Pole.In2009 sheskiedsolo to the North Pole itself.
Wang Shi is a highly successful property entrepreneur who has also
climbed the Seven Summits, skied both North and South Poles, and rafted
the Yangtze tohelp raise awareness ofriver conservation.
Christina Franco, Arctic expeditionrace Wang Shi and TravisWinn ofLast
Descents,Yangtze GreatBend
vii
Preface
Peopletakeholidaysasabreakfromtheroutinefromtheireverydaylives.For
some, the best kind of break is to be looked after in luxury. For others, it
meansbroadeningtheirhorizonsthroughsomenewexperienceoreducation.
Butformany,thebestkindofholidayisonethatbringsasenseofadventure,
something exciting and memorable. Some people want all of these in the
sameholiday,andindeed, that is perfectly possible.
Notsurprisingly,therefore,alargeproportionofthecommercialtourism
industryhasbeenestablishedspecificallytoprovidepeoplewithadventurous
experiences.Differentpeoplehaveverydifferentideasofwhatmakesagood
adventure, and the industry is correspondingly diverse. It is also very large,
withanannualturnoversomewhere inthe regionof atrillion dollars.
Unlikeothermajorsectorsofthecommercialtourismindustry,however,
adventuretourismhasreceivedremarkablylittleresearchattention.Infact,
it appears that there are only two previous books which address adventure
tourism explicitly: one by Swarbrooke et al. (2003), which focuses on indi-
vidualadventureexperiences;andonebyBuckley(2006a)whichfocuseson
the structure of commercial adventure tourism products. Even including
academicbooksinrelatedareassuchasthatbyRyan(2003)onRecreational
Tourism and Baldacchino (2006) on Extreme Tourism, and commercial
publications such as The Lonely Planet Blue List, this is still a remarkably
sparseliterature for such a large field.
The reasons for this lack of research attention are not clear. Perhaps
adventuretourismhasnotbeenwelldefined:butthesamecertainlyapplies
for ecotourism, and there is no shortage of books on that topic. Perhaps
adventure tourism has been analysed under other headings: but in fact,
although there is a large literature on outdoor recreation, that literature
focuses almost exclusively on private individual recreational practices, with
ratherlittleattentiontothecommercialadventuretourismindustry.Perhaps
tourism researchers do not see any opportunities for research in adventure
tourismtoadvancetheoreticalunderstandingsoftourismmoregenerally.In
fact,however,surelymanysuchopportunitiesexist,ifonlybecausepeoplein
unfamiliar situations behave differently than they do at home, providing
significant scopefor psychological and behavioural analysis.
ix
x Preface
Perhaps, therefore, it is simply that as a subsector of the commercial
tourism industry, adventure tourism has grown to its current scale rather
recentlyandrapidly.Ofcourse,thisdependsonjusthowadventuretourism
is defined, but in very broad terms we might recognise three historical pha-
ses.Intheearliestphase,thereweresomehighlyadventuroustravellers,but
notmanyofthem.Inthesecondphase,theexpansionofmasstourism,the
number of tourists grew enormously, but most of them were not very
adventurous. It is only in this current third phase, as mass tourism has
evolved from its model-T beginnings to its highly customised current
structures, that commercial adventure tourism has had the opportunity to
expand its economic scale, with the proliferation of adventure equipment,
clothing,infrastructureand lifestylesas well as retail tours.
Irrespectiveofthereasons,itdoessurelyseemthatadventuretourismhas
receivedagreatdeallessacademicattentionthatitdeserves;andtheaimof
thisvolumeistocontributetoovercomingthisdeficit.Aswiththeprevious
volume (Buckley, 2006a), this book focuses on commercial adventure
tourism,wherepredefinedproductsandpackagesaresoldultimatelytoretail
consumers, through a range of different marketing mechanisms. The
approachtaken,however,isquitedifferentfromthatpreviousvolume,which
provideddetaileddescriptiveanalysesofauditedadventuretourismproducts
from around 20 different subsectors, defined by the principal activity
concerned.
Thisvolume,incontrast,examinesgeneralfeatures oftheentireadven-
ture tourism sector simultaneously, with only a few activity subsectors
considered in detail as case studies. Individual adventure tourism products
are referred to on occasion as examples, but are not described in any detail.
Someofthepatternspresentedherehavebeenderivedfromfurtheranalysisof
data published previously in the 2006 volume, whereas others are entirely
new. At the time of going to press, one of these 13 chapters had also been
published as an article in the journal Tourism Management, and part of
another overlaps a submission to the journal Annals of Tourism Research.
Theremainingmaterialisnotavailableelsewhere.
Thisbookiswrittenforavarietyofdifferentreaders.Itincludesreviews
andanalysesofresearch dataand previous publicationswhicharegenerally
intended to be reliable, representative, and up-to-date. It is written in
astraightforwardstyleusingnon-technicallanguage,forusebypractitioners
anduniversitystudentsaswellasresearchers.Itwillbemostvaluableifread
in conjunction with the 2006 volume which presents detailed case studies.
This follows the same approach as a 2009 book on ecotourism (Buckley,
2009a), which can usefully be read in conjunction with a 2003 book on
ecotourism case studies (Buckley,2003a).
Preface xi
The material presented in this book is intended for readers who already
have a general understanding of the tourism industry, whether through
practice,researchinterests,oranundergraduatecourseintourismortourism
management. There are many textbooks and research volumes on tourism
management more generally, and this book assumes that the reader under-
standsthebroadstructureofthetourismindustry,includingmarketingand
distributionsystemsandthevarietyofbusinessmodelsincommonuse.My
aimhereisnottoreviewthebasicsoftourismstudies,buttoshowhowand
where adventure tourism fits, both inthe commercial industry itself and in
the various relevantresearch disciplines.
The 13 chapters are organised into three sections. The first section,
chapters 1–3, presents a global overview of the scale and scope, geography,
andproductandmarketingpatternsintheadventuretourismindustry.The
second section, chapters 4–8 inclusive, addresses four major operational
management aspects, namely, risk, communications, access, and environ-
ment. Climate change is also considered in this section. The third section,
chapters 9–12 inclusive, presents four different subsectors representative
of different components of the adventure tourism industry: wildlife,
marine, boardsports, and helicopter adventure tourism, respectively. In
conclusion,chapter 13identifies keytrends and patterns for future practice
and research.
About the Author
Ralf Buckley is Professor and Director of the International Centre for
Ecotourism Research, established in 1993 at Griffith University, Australia.
Hehasover700publicationsincluding185refereedjournalarticles;andhe
has written and edited a dozen academic books, including seven on
ecotourism and related topics. He has several decades of experience in
various forms of adventure recreation and used to work as a tour guide for
a US-basedinternationaltour company.Hisresearchfocusesprincipally on
the various interactions between the tourism industry and the natural
environment. His 2006 book on Adventure Tourism assembled over 100
auditedcasestudiesfromover20activitysubsectors.Thisvolumebuildson
that foundation bytaking a more analytical approach.
xiii
List of Tables
Table 2.1 ProportionsofOutdoorTourOperatorsinEachAustralianState
and Territory
Table 3.1 Adventure Tour Operators Audited
Table 3.2 GroupSizes and Client-to-GuideRatios
Table 3.3 Marketing MethodsforAdventure Tours
Table 4.1 Participant Attitudes and Perceptions in Particular Adventure
Activities
Table 4.2 Guides’ Roles inRisk Management
Table 5.1 ToursUsedforParticipant Observations
Table 5.2 Major Subjects ofRoutine Communications
Table 5.3 Key Characteristicsof Communication Case Studies
Table 6.1 Case Studies, Monitoring Tourism in Parks
Table 9.1 AnimalsinAdventureTourismProducts:SelectedCaseStudies
Table 10.1 Marine Adventure Tours
Table 10.2 Distribution ofShark SpeciesWatched byDivers
Table 12.1 Structureof Heliski ProductPackages
Table 12.2 Key Featuresof HeliskiProducts andMarketing
xv
List of Figures
Figure2.1 Global distribution of adventure tour destinations for surfing,
heliskiing, and whitewater rafting.
Figure2.2 Distribution ofoutdoortour operatorsin Australia.
Figure3.1 Pricesanddurations foradventure tourism products audited.
Figure3.2 Pricesperday, means andstandard deviations.
Figure3.3 Skill requirements andremoteness.
Figure6.1 Sale prices perha, 1985–2005, AlpineShire,Victorian Alps.
Figure13.1 The adventure tourism product pyramid. From Buckley
(2007a).
xvii
CHAPTER 1
Scope and Scale
Exploding wave, Colorado River,USA
KEY ISSUES
CONTENTS
Scope
Key Issues
- defining adventure tourism
Chapter Summary
- related terms andsectors
Research Review
- history ofthe concept Big Picture
- activities involved Looking Back
- structure ofthe sector
- review ofacademicand greyliterature
Scale
- howto estimatethe economic scale of the adventure tourism sector
- components andboundaries
- valuation and estimation measures and methods
- review ofactual estimates forparticular sectors andplaces
- range ofestimates forthe global industry
- adventure tourism as a trillion-dollar sector
- add-onssuchas amenitymigration and associated property markets
AdventureTourismManagement
3
Copyright(cid:2)2010byElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.
4 CHAPTER 1: Scope and Scale
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Scope
Adventure tourism is a broad term which encompasses all types of
commercial outdoor tourism and recreation with a significant element of
excitement.Itiscloselyrelatedtonature-basedtourism,withsomeoverlap.
Whilst nature-based tourism products focus on seeing, however, adventure
tourism products focus on doing.
A wide range of outdoor recreation activities have been packaged as
commercial adventure tour products, from short, low-key hiking trips to
expensive and equipment-intensive tours involving helicopters and expedi-
tion cruise vessels.
Adventuretourismissometimesalsotakentoincludeindependenttravel
which provides or is perceived by the travellers themselves as providing, an
adventurous experience. At the other end of the spectrum, it may also be
takentoincludelarge-scale,fixed-siteoutdoor sportingfacilitiessuchasski
resortsandyachtmarinas,andassociatedretailandresidentialcomponents.
Here,however,thefocusisonpackagedcommercialretailadventuretourism
products purchasableby individual consumers.
Scale
Therearebasicallytwodifferentapproachestoestimatetheeconomicscale
of the adventure tourism sector: top-down or bottom-up. The former relies
oncalculatingwhatproportionofthetourismindustryasawholeconsistsof
adventure tourism. The latter relies on estimating the economic scale of
every individual adventure tourism operation or at least subsector, and
aggregatingtheseintoacumulativefigurefortheadventuretourismindustry
as a whole. With perfect data and unambiguous definitions, these two
approaches should yield the same result. In practice, since both data and
definitions are rather incomplete and unreliable, the two approaches can
yield quite different results. The degree to which they correspond, however,
can provide anindicationofhow reliable theymay be.
Itisonlyinrecentdecadesthatcountrieshavebeguntoestimatethescale
of their tourism industries at all, since historically this was not included as
one of the calculation components for GNP. Tourism satellite accounts are
nowwidespreadinanumberofnations,butstillnotparticularlyprecise.Itis
notable, for example, that the peak international tourism industry associa-
tion, the World Travel and Tourism Council, estimates global tourism
turnoverataround$7trillionperyear,whereasthepeakintergovernmental
body, the UN World Tourism Organisation, gives a considerably smaller