Women’s adventure tour guiding experiences: Implications for well-being

Abstract

Understanding how working in adventure tourism impacts the psychological well-being of adventure guides is vital to developing tour guiding theory and responsible industry practices. However, little research has examined the well-being of women who are commercial adventure tour guides. This study explored the experiences of female adventure tourism guides in land, water and air-based activities in relation to psychological well-being. Guides participated in 1-h semi-structured interviews using the Scanlan Collaborative Interview Method. Thematic analysis identified key factors underpinning psychological well-being for female adventure guides. Specifically, guides described various ways that their gender influenced interactions with clients, co-guides and management, and how these gendered interactions supported or hindered basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Analysis also highlighted how ‘mother figure’ perceptions and the psychological burden of client safety could hinder women's well-being in adventure tour guiding contexts. This investigation expands the tourism literature by: (1) enhancing understandings of women's adventure tour guiding experiences and tour guide well-being; (2) demonstrating the influence of gender on women's guiding experiences; (3) translating the findings into recommended practices for tourism operators; (4) applying a self-determination theory framework to explore guide well-being; (5) employing a novel interview method to study guide well-being.