The adventure tourist

The aim of this chapter is to provide insights into the consumers of adventure tourism experiences. It firstly begins with an overview of the demand for this type of tourism and some of the challenges involved in accurately estimating this, not least the difficulty in defining what adventure tourism actually is. It then turns to a review of industry demand trends to illustrate the broad range of individuals who engage in adventure activities while on holiday or in their home region. Adventure tourists have diverse needs, motives and profiles. Yet, with the unparalleled growth of the industry over the past 20 plus years, adventure organisations can ensure that this eclectic and abundant group of consumers are well catered for. The chapter then examines the motives which encourage adventure tourism participation and the benefits that adventure tourists enjoy from this. After outlining the inextricable relationship that tourism motives and benefits share, the discussion focuses on adventure recreation motives, which formed the foundation for early research on adventure tourist motives. After a brief review of the more recent scholarly focus on the wellbeing motives and benefits of adventure activities, extrinsic and intrinsic motives and benefits, and push and pull motivation theory are presented. This is followed by a review of the constraints that tourists potentially encounter before and during their adventure experiences, and the negotiation strategies they use to overcome these. Throughout the chapter, there are three illustrative case studies: Sheffield: The Outdoor City (7.1); Older adventure tourists (7.2); and Family adventure tourists (7.3).