1st Edition

Adventure Tourism Meanings, experience and learning

Edited By Steve Taylor, Peter Varley, Tony Johnston Copyright 2013
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Adventure tourism is an increasingly widespread phenomenon, appealing to an expanding proportion of the population who seek new destinations and new experiences.

    This timely, edited volume offers new theoretical perspectives of this emerging subset of Tourism. it uses philosophical and cutting edge empirically grounded research to challenge existing thinking and develop the conceptual framework underpinning definitions of adventure, interrogating the adventure tourism experience and further building upon recent advances in adventure education. The book brings together adventure literature from range of disciplines and applies it to focused study of Adventure Tourism. By doing so it significantly furthers understanding and moves forward this development of this area of Tourism.

    This significant volume is written by leading academics in the area, and will be valuable reading for all those interested in Adventure Tourism.

    Section 1: The Meaning of Adventure 1. The Meaning of Adventure 2. The Adventure Enigma: An Analysis of Mountain Based Adventure Tourism in Britain 3. Capturing Meaning as well as Pleasure: A Happiness Study with Adventure Tourists 4. Pushing Life to the Edge: The Ability of Adventure to Take the Individual into the World  Section 2: The Adventure Experience 5. Recovering the Forgotten Ground: Narratives of Slow Adventure 6. The Disneyization of Adventure 7. Profiling Adventure Tourists in Pretoria: A Comparative Analysis 8. How was it for you? Assessing the Quality of the Adventure Experience Section 3: Adventure Learning 9. The Demise of the Outdoor Apprenticeship 10. Structured Feedback in Outdoor Adventure Education 11. Learning through Adventure

    Biography

    Steve Taylor is a researcher at West Highland College, University of the High-lands and Islands.

    Peter Varley is Director of the Centre for Recreation and Tourism Research at West Highland College, University of the Highlands and Islands.

    Tony Johnston is a lecturer in Development Geography at King’s College London.

    “Reflecting on all the chapters of the book, the reader is made aware of the breadth of the phenomena of adventure: from survival expeditions in wilderness, through soul-seeking journeys, to its commercialized forms that have gained popularity in post-modern times. The multidisciplinary Book Reviews / Annals of Tourism Research 47 (2014) 96–106 105 approach is what greatly augments the contents of this book as it is evident that authors have sought to find innovative methods in order to better understand the concept of adventure. However, the book undoubtedly invites readers to question their own practices and to create their own definition of adventure as a starting point for their explorations.” – Jelena M. Farkic, Department of Tourism, Novi Sad, Serbia, Published in Annals of Tourism Research