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Industry Demands Credible Adventure Travel Research

By Christina Heyniger, ATTA Associate

The travel and tourism industry is widely recognized as a large and powerful industry - in the United States, tourism is now the third-largest retail industry, behind car dealers and food stores. Worldwide, it has the power to transform economies unlike many others: World Tourism Organization Secretary General Francesco Frangialli noted, “Tourism is the only service industry where there is a positive balance of trade flowing from first world to third world countries.”

Our industry is in the midst of sea change, however - our old definitions and methods for quantifying the impact of tourism no longer accurately describe and capture what people are really doing when they travel and how they make their travel decisions.

People are not only seeking unique experiences when they travel, they are becoming more conscientious about the effect their travel has on a destination and its inhabitants. Even without canvassing exhaustive research, it’s obvious that the industry is responding with a wide array of new tourism opportunities.

Take a basic Internet search using Yahoo: in 2000, Yahoo! Web listed 36 specialized tour categories with a combined total of 946 listings under all categories. Among the top:

• Adventure Travel with 601 listings;
• Eco tours with 36 listings;
• Educational or sports tours with 33 listings.

Compare those results to what we find in a 2005 Yahoo! search:

• Adventure Tours: 770 listings;
• Eco Tours: 335 listings;
• Cultural Tours: 499 listings;
• Heritage Tours: 390 listings.

Two niches not even on the radar in 2000 – cultural tours and heritage tours – now have a combined 889 listings. Adventure travel (without even knowing how Yahoo! separates adventure travel from eco travel) grew 28%.

Clearly, something important is occurring in the travel and tourism industry – expansion and evolution. This presents a tremendous opportunity, not only for adventure travel tour operators and other service providers who profit from travel expenditures, but also for policy makers and organizations seeking to further the goals of environmental conservation and social development. Meanwhile, calls for research are mounting – the ATTA receives calls every week from inter/national media outlets, tourism boards, operators and others in the industry seeking credible research data and yet our industry cannot yet point to definitive studies that accurately represent our industry. Multiple studies spearheaded by the ATTA are nearing completion to begin addressing this gap in research.

Early Research Supports Growing Traveler Preferences for Adventure Travel Experiences

The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) and National Geographic Traveler released a report in 2002, “The Geotourism Study: Phase1.” The report attempts to understand traveler attitudes that lead to potential sustainable tourism behavior and provide the travel industry with insight into future consumer expectations. It states that 55.1 million Americans can be classified as “sustainable tourists” or “Geotourists,” and then segments this group into categories, identifying one segment as “geo savvy” travelers. It only takes a minute to examine the “geo savvy” travelers’ preferences and see that the adventure travel industry is in a prime position to deliver the kind of experiences a growing segment of the traveling population desires. For example,

• They are three times above average in enjoying primitive travel to wilderness areas
• They are two times as likely that average to like outdoor adventure travel, offering challenge, risk and excitement or to travel to remote locales.
• 81% travel to experience people, lifestyles and cultures different from their own
• 80% visit small towns and rural areas

Adventure travel is inherently global in nature, presenting an opportunity for economies around the world to benefit from its responsible development and growth. The adventure travel industry should be at the forefront in shaping the evolution and growth of this travel market. But first it must establish itself within the expanding array of tourism niches. Until we can effectively describe and quantify the shift in travel preferences toward adventure travel, we won’t be able to take advantage of the opportunities it presents.

Burning Questions

• How should we define adventure travel relative to other growing niches: eco-travel, rural tourism, or cultural tourism?
• Who are adventure travelers?
• What motivates travelers to adventure, to step outside their existing comfort levels?
• What kinds of lifestyle preferences define them as a group? (For example, music, food, entertainment)
• How do adventure travelers wish to be reached by tour operators?
• What kind of impact will adventure travelers have on local, regional, state and continental economies and the environment?

As the ATTA and our partners begin to answer some of these questions, the adventure travel industry is sure to benefit.

Existing Research

In 1997 Heidi Sung (1997) sought to define adventure travel in a study that resulted in the following definition: “A trip or travel with the specific purpose of activity participation to explore a new experience, often involving perceived risk or controlled danger associated with personal challenges, in a natural environment or exotic outdoor setting.”¹

Building on the work of Sung, and similar work completed in 2000 by the Travel Industry Association of America, Doctoral Student Paige P. Schneider and Dr. Christin A. Vogt, Associate Professor, both of Michigan State University, in cooperation with the ATTA are finalizing trade and consumer survey results. Ms. Schneider’s studies aims to “assess and compare adventure travel industry supplier and consumer perspectives of how ‘adventure travel’ is defined.

Visit the following story, “ATTA and Michigan State University Release Travel and Consumer Study Executive Summaries” in this month’s issue of AdventureTravelNews™. Complete results of each survey will be shared exclusively with ATTA members before the 2005 Adventure Travel World Summit (www.adventuretravelworldsummit.com). To become an ATTA Member visit: http://www.adventuretravel.biz/membership.htm 

What’s Next

Get Involved! The ATTA is preparing to expand on these small projects with a global benchmarking study that would unify the industry around a common definition of adventure travel and set the course for future development. For more information on the ATTA’s research projects, to offer input on to areas of research interest, or to express interest in helping to sponsor and underwrite the study, please contact Chris Doyle, ATTA Director, at , 916.791.9409.

¹ Heidi H. Sung (), Alastair M. Morrison and Joseph T. O’Leary Definition of Adventure Travel: Conceptual Framework for Empirical Application from the Providers’ Perspective. 1997. (http://www.hotel-online.com/Neo/Trends/AsiaPacificJournal/AdventureTravel.html) A version of this article was presented in the 1996 Annual Society of Travel and Tourism Educators Conference in Ottawa, Canada in October 1996.