1. Slow adventure?
Dr. Pete Varley

2. What is ‘adventure’?
• Originally part of everyday pre-modern life – a
means of survival
• War, crusades, exploration / exploitation /
colonialism
• Mythology, fairytales, narratives
• Training, education, human resource
development
• Leisure / tourism business

3. Contemporary society
• Industrialisation and capitalism
• Separation between urban and rural, urban and
‘wild’
• Separation between work and leisure
• Separation between production and consumption
• The advent of the holiday
• Sedentary lifestyles – home as leisure
centre, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, mental
illness
• Cash rich, time poor
• ‘Cotton-wool kids’
• Hypermodernity – accelerating, technologised
lives

4. Adventure tourism in contemporary
society
• From grand tours to ‘capsule-adventure’
• Convenient
• Risk assessed
• Repeatable, reliable, rationalised
• Quality assured
• Time constrained
• Grew out of adventure education, outdoor
centres, Outward Bound

5. Commercial Adventure in Scotland
• SHALLOW: no skills, short duration, big
‘wow’, no personal commitment
– Highland Activities: Vertical Descents
http://www.verticaldescents.com/
• HARD SKILLS:
– Abacus Mountaineering: still little commitment
required, but personal effort and learning. Longer
duration
http://www.abacusmountaineering.com/currentc
onditions.html

6. Commercial Adventure in Scotland
• DEEP/ECO: more time and self-sufficiency
required, but still supported and
marketed, facilitated, risk assured. There is
personal physical effort and a focus on the
richness of the natural environment
• http://www.wildernessscotland.com/adventures_acco
mm.php?tripID=151

7. Skills training, education and expertise
in Scotland
• Hard skills – a huge range of NGB’s
• Marketing / packaging
• Social media management and
applications
• Physiology, philosophy and sociology of
adventure tourism
• Soft skills training: customer
care, negotiation, management
• Broad tourism education

8. What do we lack?
• Tourism that is responsible and encourages a
deep appreciation of place
• Comfort in the outdoors
• Deep outdoor skills – the ability to live in the
wild as a tourist experience
• Time outdoors – just being
• Encouraging people to get out there, without
needing the ‘fear’ or mega physical element

9. Slow movements

10. Slow adventure
• The journey, not the destination or the adventure
micro-activity
• Time, spent in nature
• Being comfortable with being outdoors
• Not about ‘conquering’, but being
• Human-powered travel
• Being with others
• And/or being alone
• Not guided or taught, but enabled

11. What is the special Scandinavian
ingredient?
• Friluftsliv: Scandinavian philosophy of
connectedness to outdoor living and natural
context
• Arguably a dying lifestyle (see notes on
indutrialisation, convenience, above)
• Some commercialised forms exist, which can lose
the philosophical dimension (Gelter, 2000)
• A good connection to slow adventure
• ‘Friluftsliv countries’ struggle with ways of making
the most of this rich tradition via tourism
• And in keeping the philosophy alive…

12. Slow adventure/friluftsliv: Can the two
concepts be combined?
Is it sustainable?
– Environmentally, yes
– Socially, yes
– Economically… ?
Is there demand? Indicators?
– Prime time TV and magazines:
– Slow food
– Forest schools
– Bushcraft and survival
– Increased popularity of the OB 3 week expedition
– A cook on the wild side
– Forage restaurants at top of world’s best list

13. Conclusions: the challenge!
• How do we build/rebuild and capitalise on the friluftsliv
concept?
• Inspire young people to participate (in Scandinavia and
beyond)? – For health, wealth and wellbeing
• Harness this unique worldview as something special about
North European tourism?
• Meld with the concept of slow adventure?
• Avoid it being overly guided (disempowering), or elitist
preaching
• Share skills – Scottish entrepreneurship in adventure
tourism and adventure marketing / Scandinavian expertise
and knowledge of friluftsliv
• Create it as part of hypermodernity: reflection and respite
in nature

14. Final Conclusion:
We must share our skills and
combine our knowledge.