Adventure Travel Research Articles

Challenges of extraordinary experiences in the Arctic

AbstractThis paper presents and discusses findings from extraordinary experiences in the Arctic Svalbard. Although extensive consumer research has focused on the positive, sublime, and communal aspects of extraordinary experiences, little emphasis has been placed on the challenging aspects. By focusing on Arctic horse riding, Arctic adventure travel and dog sledding from a practice perspective, this study provides evidence that extraordinary consumption can be marked by challenges because of unrealistic expectations, troubling learning practices and connecting with others, and how one copes with tensions. We discuss how these four main types of challenges mark consumption and as such provide a nuanced interpretation compared with the positive connotations of previous research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rickettsioses as causes of CNS infection in southeast Asia.

1report that scrub typhus caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, murine typhus caused by Rickettsia typhi, and leptospirosis caused by various Leptospira species account for more than a third of CNS infections diagnosed over 8 years in Vientiane Hospital in Laos. The study is one more great contribution from this team in their investigation of undocumented syndromes, as well as in the public health challenge of rickettsial diseases in southeast Asia. The same investigators have previously reported that scrub typhus was the second most common microbial cause of fever of unknown origin in rural Laos (122 [15%] of 799 diagnosed cases). 2 In 2006, rickettsial infection was detected in 115 (27%) of 427 adults admitted to Vientiane Hospital for fever with negative blood culture. 3 The most common rickettsial agent was O tsutsugamushi followed by R typhi. Fewer data are available about the prevalence of these diseases in other southeast Asian countries. In Thailand, scrub and murine typhus has been reported 4 in 16% and 2%, respectively, of fever of unknown origin, with mortality of 3–17% for scrub typhus. Even if epidemiological data for the whole region are unavailable, the substantial presence of rickettsial infections is shown by frequent reports in travellers returning from this area. 5

Physiology in Medicine: A physiologic approach to prevention and treatment of acute high-altitude illnesses.

With the growing interest in adventure travel and the increasing ease and affordability of air, rail, and road-based transportation, increasing numbers of individuals are traveling to high altitude. The decline in barometric pressure and ambient oxygen tensions in this environment trigger a series of physiologic responses across organ systems and over a varying time frame that help the individual acclimatize to the low oxygen conditions but occasionally lead to maladaptive responses and one or several forms of acute altitude illness. The goal of this Physiology in Medicine article is to provide information that providers can use when counseling patients who present to primary care or travel medicine clinics seeking advice about how to prevent these problems. After discussing the primary physiologic responses to acute hypoxia from the organ to the molecular level in normal individuals, the review describes the main forms of acute altitude illness--acute mountain sickness, high-altitude cerebral edema, and high-altitude pulmonary edema--and the basic approaches to their prevention and treatment of these problems, with an emphasis throughout on the physiologic basis for the development of these illnesses and their management.

Leishmaniasis in travelers: a literature review.

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne protozoan infection whose clinical spectrum ranges from asymptomatic infection to fatal visceral leishmaniasis. Over the last decades, an increase in imported leishmaniasis cases in developed, non-endemic countries, have been pointed-out from a review of the international literature. Among the possible causes are increasing international tourism, influx of immigrants from endemic regions and military operations. The main area for the acquisition of cutaneous leishmaniasis, especially for adventure travelers on long-term trips in highly-endemic forested areas, is represented from South America, whereas popular Mediterranean destinations are emerging as the main areas to acquire visceral variant. Leishmaniasis should be considered in the diagnostic assessment of patients presenting with a compatible clinical syndrome and a history of travel to an endemic area, even if this occurred several months or years before. Adventure travelers, researchers, military personnel, and other groups of travelers likely to be exposed to sand flies in endemic areas, should receive counseling regarding leishmaniasis and appropriate protective measures.

Recreating first contact: expeditions, anthropology, and popular culture

Recreating First Contact explores themes related to the proliferation of adventure travel which emerged during the early twentieth century and that were legitimized by their associations with popular views of anthropology. During this period, new transport and recording technologies, particularly the airplane and automobile and small, portable, still and motion-picture cameras, were utilized by a variety of expeditions to document the last untouched places of the globe and bring them home to eager audiences. These expeditions were frequently presented as first contact encounters and enchanted popular imagination. The various narratives encoded in the articles, books, films, exhibitions and lecture tours that these expeditions generated fed into pre-existing stereotypes about racial and technological difference, and helped to create them anew in popular culture. Through an unpacking of expeditions and their popular wakes, the essays (12 chapters, a preface, introduction and afterward) trace the complex but obscured relationships between anthropology, adventure travel and the cinematic imagination that the 1920s and 1930s engendered and how their myths have endured. The book further explores the effects - both positive and negative - of such expeditions on the discipline of anthropology itself. However, in doing so, this volume examines these impacts from a variety of national perspectives and thus through these different vantage points creates a more nuanced perspective on how expeditions were at once a global phenomenon but also culturally ordered.

Into the mountains and across the country: emergent forms of equine adventure leisure in Canada

This paper draws upon Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘lines of flight’ to analyze the complex inter-relationship between people and their animals as enacted through adventure travel. Two narrative case studies illustrate how the human/horse relationship has been used to transform and/or escape from power relations. The first takes place during the early twentieth century with Mary Shaffer challenging Victorian gender and class relations through her exertions into what is now Jasper National Park in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. Similarly, second is the journey of Barbara Kingscote, who after the Second World War rode her horse from Quebec across Canada. Each case study constitutes an emergent form of adventure leisure that involves a companion species. In forging dialogic and material alliances based on a mutual ethics of caring, participants seek out ‘lines of flight’ from territorializing social forces and by doing so discover new territories in which to inhabit.

City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing

City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing

Successful tourism clusters: Passion in paradise

Highlights• We interviewed members of a tourism cluster on the Gold Coast, Australia.• Clusters are an effective way to facilitate destination marketing and development.• Focus on individuals rather than firms to create a successful tourism cluster.• Having passionate and committed cluster members is important for success.Niche tourism clusters are often used by managers of mature destinations to improve competitiveness. Cluster bring together geographically concentrated businesses (Porter, 1998) that have a common interest (Gray, 1985), allowing them to pool their efforts to achieve advantages, such as economies of scale (Palmer & Bejou, 1995). Prior research on clusters focuses on businesses entities as the unit of analysis (Novelli, Schmitz, & Spencer, 2006), through use of concepts of partnerships (Selin, 1999), strategic alliances (Palmer & Bejou, 1995) and networks (Tremblay, 1998). This research note seeks to advance this body of knowledge by concentrating on the characteristics of the individuals involved. The prior literature of clusters emphasises structural properties of clusters as explanatory actors for success, whereas, the results here indicate that certain characteristics of key individuals are also important.The research investigated a case study of the Gold Coast Adventure Travel Group (GCATG), a successful tourism cluster on the Gold Coast, Australia.

Literary Tourism as a Modern Approach for Development of Tourism in Tajikistan

The word “tourist” has been used to mean travellers, for about two centuries, and tourism as a market has passed many ups and downs and has had great changes. Nowadays millions of people go on tours and billions of dollars are circulated in global tourism. Demands of tourism marketing are expanding rapidly and they are not limited to certain types of tourism such as travel to beaches neither for some predetermined purposes anymore. The formation of different tourism types like agritourism, ecotourism, adventure travel, geotourism, and literary tourism that indicate the wide range and extent of global demand in tourism market. Such an extended market provides the opportunity for different tourism destinations to attract tourists from its global market regarding compatibilities and priorities. In this article literary tourism as a modern approach for Tajikistan is explained and also pointed to benefits of literary tourism for development of Tajikistan.

Travels and tourism are drivers for trichinellosis

BackgroundAcquiring trichinellosis while traveling abroad is not a new phenomenon and imported cases are regularly reported worldwide. Cases contracted abroad and reported by the French National Reference Centre for Trichinella (NRCT) are analyzed here.ResultsSince 1998, 28 imported cases, representing 37% of all cases, were reported to the NRCT, with a mean annual incidence of two cases. Between 1975 and 1998, 40 imported cases represented only 1.5% of all identified cases, but with a comparable mean annual incidence of 1.6 cases. The incidence of imported cases could even have decreased since 1998 as the number of international travelers increased during that period. Since 1998, most cases were acquired in Canada from bear meat (hunters). Some cases were acquired in West Africa from warthog meat, in Laos from pork, and one case, in Algeria, was because of the consumption of jackal meat.DiscussionThese imported cases are most likely to occur in countries where the habit of eating raw meat is common and may show a high transmission in some regions where the disease is or had become unknown (e.g. Senegal, Laos, etc.). Backpackers, adventure travelers, or hunters will certainly be at a higher risk and should be informed about the risks of eating raw meat (pork, game, or reptile meat) and should be discouraged from illegally importing potentially infected meat that could introduce the parasite in Trichinella-free areas.ConclusionTravelers can be good indicators of the emergence of the parasitosis in a given country. Imported cases are good indicators of the epidemiology of the disease in countries where the original infection occurred.

Mind the ‘gap year’: a critical discourse analysis of volunteer tourism promotional material

The volunteer tourism program (VTP) is a popular form of travel for young tourists in which adventure travel is paired with short-term ‘volunteer’ placements in host communities around the countries of the global South. VTPs are now a routine mode of travel or pre-university ‘training’ for wealthy young people from across North America and Western Europe and exist outside of any historical or political context. They promise adventure travel, altruistic volunteer experiences, and an authentic experience of the other, whom the volunteer can help to transform. If not for the long history of intervention and domination that normalizes this new incarnation of the ‘civilizing mission’, the knowledge claims and authority asserted by the VTP would hardly appear so acceptable. The VTP exists in a cultural blind spot made possible by North–South relations structured on intervention and transformation of the other. This paper critically examines the promotional discourses of VTP providers and identifies the discursive strategies employed to normalize, encode, and legitimate the practice of volunteer intervention. VTP discourses legitimate volunteer intervention through representations of the host community that imagine poverty and authenticity as presenting a need for volunteers and through constructions of a volunteer identity that allows for travel outside of political and historical contexts. I suggest that the VTP can best be understood as a manifestation of continuing patterns of exploitation and domination of the global South, whereby VTP intervention discursively positions itself as ‘innocent’ of the very historical and political trends that make it possible.

MAPPING THE UNDISCOVERED OBJECTS AND SITES IN LITHUANIA

Forlorn, uncared-for cultural or natural objects and sites fail to be included into lists of touristic attractions due to their obscurity, poor condition and communication and are usually visited by certain social groups (extreme adventure travellers, members of various subcultures and etc.). The analysis revealed a wide array of such objects and sites, which are unknown and not in very good condition, can be very different starting with manor houses, historic parks and gardens and finishing with airfields, open courses or dumping grounds. The goal of a pilot research project carried out at the National Centre of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics “GIS-Centras” was to collect information on diverse objects and sites that are typically not included into official information sources and fall outside the tourist infrastructure network. The collected information will be published as a map service. The inventory of such undiscovered objects and sites and visualisation is one of the ways to encourage the interest of visitors, especially in regions that lack famous tourist attraction objects or beautiful landscapes. The paper describes solutions for the structure of the database, object acquisition technology, cartographic visualisation and publication of collected data as an online map at www.nemasinis.lt ...

Applying the 3M Model of Personality and Motivation to Adventure Travelers

More than a decade has passed since the Travel Industry Association investigated adventure travel as a promising market. Despite growth in the adventure industry, studies of adventure travelers remain scarce, particularly in the identification of the psychological underpinnings of consumer adventurers. Mowen’s (2000) 3M Model of Motivation and Personality provided an organizing framework to explain the psychological roots of adventure tourism behavior. Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to a random sample ( N = 1000) of National Geographic Adventure magazine subscribers with a response rate ( n = 339) of 34%. Guttman Scaling Procedure was employed to categorize respondents in hard and soft adventure traveler categories as a context for understanding the demographic and travel behavior characteristics. The personality trait interest in cultural experiences was a consistent predictor of adventure travel propensity for hard and soft adventure traveler groups. The traits need for arousal and need for material resources were significant predictors for the hard adventure traveler group, while competitiveness was the other trait found to be a significant predictor for the soft adventure traveler group. Findings of this study enhance knowledge and understanding of the relationship between personality and tourism behavior.

Surfing as adventure travel: Motivations and lifestyles

The purpose of this study was to create a profile of the adventure traveler’s lifestyles, values and travel motivations. An understanding of the lifestyle and attitudes of today’s adventure traveler can aid tourism marketers in designing messages tailored to this unique target market. Differences and similarities between genders and the age cohorts of Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers were examined. Across the sample most participated in a “traditional” type of sport before migrating to an adventure activity and they also engaged in more than one type of adventure activity. Across the sample, the participants traveled in order to meet or maintain current relationships. While participating in their adventure sport, females reinforced the desire to be with others while males wanted to gain self-confidence. The participants overall also viewed themselves as conservative in their lifestyles and values. They spend money carefully and do not feel the desire to rebel against things in general. Future research and implications for the resort and commercial recreation industry is presented.

Altitude‐related illness and men's health

AbstractWith adventurous travel destinations now commonplace, it is important to be aware of the dangers of extreme environments, such as high altitude, as Alastair Dick explains. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons

Are Expedition Medical Kits Too Dangerous to Carry?

If you were to accompany a month‐long expedition into a remote area as a trip physician, you would want to have with you an assortment of medications that would be useful in case of illness or trauma among the expedition members. 1 Your position as a licensed physician would justify the use of prescription medications. If the same adventure travel company were to run the trip without a physician along, should all the medications be left at home? Surprisingly, that's the advice that some adventure travel companies have received from their legal advisors. The thinking seems to be that if you do not have medication, you cannot harm anyone with an adverse drug reaction, or a wrong diagnosis, ignoring the uncomfortable reality that if you do not have medication along it's possible that someone could die, or suffer irreparable harm. The fact that bringing along a group medical kit has even been questioned has largely flown under the radar of the travel medicine world. That is why a study by Pattenden and colleagues 2 in this issue of the Journal of Travel Medicine appropriately highlights an important concern. The authors showed that half of British companies taking clients to remote high altitude destinations did not bring basic drugs to prevent or treat altitude illness. The study did not inquire about other important drugs, but they did discover that several of the companies did not carry group drugs because of fear of liability. An international flight … Corresponding Author: David R. Shlim, MD, Jackson Hole Travel and Tropical Medicine, PO Box 40, Kelly, WY 83011, USA. E‐mail: drshlim{at}wyom.net

‘I just push through the barriers because I live for surfing’: how women negotiate their constraints to surf tourism

Surf tourism is a rapidly growing sector, involving millions of surfers travelling both domestically and internationally. Surf tourism has also experienced an upswing in female participation. The purpose of this paper is to explore how active female surf tourists negotiate any constraints they may face in participating in surfing, and in their surf travel. Employing a qualitative, interpretive approach, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 female surfers to explore how they negotiated such constraints. What was evident was that personal, socio-cultural and practical constraints limited these women prior to or during their engagement in surfing and surf-related travel. Through thematic analysis, this study found that women negotiate their constraints in three key ways: by maintaining a positive attitude towards all aspects of surf tourism; by thorough planning and preparing for their surf tourism, and through being passionate about surfing and surf travel. Most importantly, it was evident that the negotiation of constraints revolved around an ‘it's worth it’ attitude. Moreover, a desire for challenge and being pushed out of their comfort zone was identified. These results are discussed with regard to existing negotiation theories focusing on women's resistance to leisure constraints. The findings show similarities to women's negotiation strategies in adventure and solo travel contexts, but also challenge previous assumptions that constraints can only be negotiated with non-participation. Furthermore, this research has confirmed more recent assumptions that the successful negotiation of constraints can also act as an enhancement of the tourism experience.

Exploring the motivation and personality traits of adventure travelers: A hierarchical model approach

Goal and objectives of the dissertationGoalThe limited research explaining the relationship between personality and tourism behavior was the catalyst for the current study. The goal of the study was to examine the underlying psychological traits that contribute to adventure travel propensity (ATP) by identifying the motivation and personality schemas of adventure travelers. In addition, this research aimed to determine the usefulness of employing a Meta-Theoretic Model of Motivation and Personality (3M Model) as an organizing structure for understanding how personality traits impact behavior.ObjectivesThe study was designed to determine the motivation-personality systems of adventure travelers. Building on existing tourist personality research and utilizing an integrated approach to motivation and personality, the 3M Model, the objective was to address the following research questions:1. Does a motivation-personality system of traits exist which is predictive of adventure travel propensity?2. Does a motivation-personality system of traits exist which is predictive of soft and hard adventure travelers?3. What are the trait antecedents of soft and hard adventure travelers?4. Does the 3M Model of motivation and personality provide a useful framework for examining tourist behavior?MethodologyData were collected using a mail questionnaire across four geographical regions following the U.S. Census A random sample of subscribers from National Geographic Adventure magazine was drawn using sampling frames representing the US in four regions. Questionnaires were mailed in October 2007 and used data collection strategies recommended by Dillman (2000). From 1,000 surveys, 339 were returned and completed for an overall response rate of 34%.A multi-method approach was used to develop the survey instrument. The survey was developed based on a literature review of existing research related to adventure recreation and tourism, consumer behavior, and personality, then modified based upon input obtained from a panel interview with adventure industry leaders. The result was a questionnaire combining previous studies and theories in the consumer behavior and recreation and tourism literature along with key industry perspectives.The overall statistical analysis included: descriptive statistics to analyze the demographic profile of the sample of adventure travelers; travel experience, intention, and pre- and post-travel behavior profile; descriptive statistics of the four personality trait levels; factor analysis to determine underlying factors of ATP; and hierarchical regressions to test the hypotheses. Guttman scaling procedure was also employed to categorize respondents into soft/hard categories as a context for understanding the demographic and travel behavior characteristics of the study sample.ResultsResults indicated significant differences exist between the hard adventure traveler (HAT) and soft adventure traveler (SAT) subgroups.In all measures of ATP, the best regression models were often the full model. For the ultimate destination experience measure of ATP, a combination of elemental, compound, and situational traits in the final hierarchical model accounted for a range of 28% to 40% of the variance. The trait indicators for all travelers were two elemental traits, need for arousal and physical/body needs (negative relationship); and two situational traits, interest in cultural experiences and fashion leadership. These accounted for 32% of the variance in ultimate destination experiences. In the case of HATs the same traits were predictive of ultimate destination experiences (need for arousal, physical/body needs-negative relationship, and interest in cultural experiences), with the exception of fashion leadership. These accounted for 28% of the variance for HATs. For SATs, the elemental trait need for physical/body needs (negative relationship), and two situational traits, interest in cultural experiences and fashion leadership (negative relationship) accounted for 40% of the variance in the ATP measure ultimate destination experiences. …

Australian senior adventure travellers to Peru: Maximising older tourists’ travel health experience

Financially comfortable, with ample spare time and much better health, older people travel more than ever and to more adventurous destinations. Taking Australian senior adventure travellers to Peru as an example, travel health preparations need to take into account the phenomenon 'senior traveller', the destination with its attractions and challenges, and age-related changes and restrictions. The need for routine travel health advice, vaccinations and prophylaxis remains unchanged. However, more emphasis should be placed on locality-specific issues so that age-appropriate advice and preparations maximize the chances for a safe and memorable travel experience.

Los relatos de viaje de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda

En este artículo pretendo ofrecer una perspectiva poco habitual en relación con la escritura de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, la de autora de relatos de viaje. Son tres los escritos de este tipo pergeñados por la escritora, uno editado como Memorias inéditas en 1914 y otros dos publicados en la prensa en 1857 y 1860. Los tres están escritos en primera persona y el primero es, con diferencia, el más intimista. Los relatos de 1857 y 1860 son los menos conocidos debido a su publicación periodística, sobre todo el primero de ellos, aparecido en las páginas del periódico El Estado, en el que hasta ahora ningún crítico había reparado; son una impresiones de viaje escritas en forma epistolar y dirigidas al escritor cubano Teodoro Guerrero. El publicado en 1914 es un relato del exilio que lleva a la autora desde Cuba hasta España, en tanto que los otros dos narran viajes veraniegos de placer; son comunes a ellos la presencia de tradiciones y de episodios históricos, constituyen además un ejemplo de literatura de balneario y de crónica social. En los tres se aglutinan variedad de materiales narrativos a los que concede cohesión la mirada de una narradora romántica que sublima el entorno contemplado y lo reproduce en términos pintorescos e incluso fantásticos, ya que su contemplación se halla mediatizada por la concepción idealizada del pueblo vasco y del entorno natural y por algunos referentes literarios. Con todo ello, dichos relatos de viaje evidencian su condición de género fronterizo, híbrido, de gran diversidad genérica y discursiva, trufados de elementos heterogéneos en una suerte de relato-miscelánea en que la aventura del viajero es un pretexto para hilvanar piezas diversas.