This document summarizes an adventure tourism presentation. It begins by defining adventure tourism and categorizing it into soft and hard adventure. It then discusses the target market for adventure tourism, which tends to be older, independent travelers over 40 with disposable income seeking unique experiences. Several examples are given of real people who engaged in adventure tourism and their motivations. The document concludes by outlining future challenges the industry may face, such as maintaining an authentic experience as it grows or dealing with risk, and recommends strategies like vetting suitable customers and focusing on health, safety, and environmental initiatives.

1. Adventure Tourism Presented by:Graham Archer MIDM, DipDM, FDT!

2. Who am I and what are all those initials about?Diploma in Direct MarketingMember of Institute of Direct MarketingFully Dragon Tested…?

3. Three Dragons in Four yearsThere are three reasons to be in business. To make money, to have fun - and to make money Never give up. Learning from failure is an essential part of the entrepreneur's experienceBelieve in yourself, never give up and go about your business with passion drive and enthusiasm.

4. Adventure tourism at Red Letter DaysNorth pole Fly in Arctic adventurePlenty of Adventure – just without the Tourism bit!

5. Graham – Driving and Gourmet or “The Fast Food team”

6. Agenda What is Adventure tourism?Examine the target market and why they choose to engage in this particular special interest sector. Identify and justify future challenges this sector is likely to face in the next decade.Recommend and evaluate possible strategies this sector must adopt to address the problems facing it.Q & A

7. What is Adventure tourism?“A leisure activity that takes place in an unusual, exotic, remote or wilderness destination. It tends to be associated with high levels of activity by the participants, most of it outdoors. Adventure travellers expect to experience varying degrees of risk, excitement and tranquillity and to be personally tested. In particular they are explorers of unspoilt exotic parts of the planet and also seek personal challenges.” (Mintel Report, 2001:5) in Novelli, 2005: 204.

8. What is Adventure tourism?“The spectrum of adventure activities ranging from non hazardous to high risk has led to the concept where adventure tourism can be categorised as either ‘soft adventure’ or ‘Hard Adventure’. Soft adventure would involve very low risk and may be undertaken by anybody physically fit and able, yet they would not necessarily need to have any previous experience in their chosen holiday. Accommodation would be provided and there would be little or no need for participation in anything other than the chosen holiday. Motivation for this would be more to the experience rather than the expectation of encounter with any risk. On the other hand, hard adventure would require previous experience, recognised levels of competence, ability to cope with the unexpected and skills associated with type of holiday.” ( Novelli, 2005: 203)

9. Target Market - Socio demographics (Source -Mintel -May 2008)Age:– Younger, independent adventure travellers may organise own adventure activitiesAverage age of those travelling with a tour operator is relatively highMore than 55% of visitors to the Adventure travel show were aged over 40 years

10. Many operators report older end of market is fastest growingE.g.”Empty nesters” have :Disposable incomeTime to go on longer tripsRemain fitter until much later in lifeDesire to see the world“Were taking more older people in the 55-75 age group. They may have heard their kids talking about a gap year and want a company that will take them to exciting places but in a safe, comfortable environment” -Jonny Bealby Founder of Wild FrontiersAverage age of Wild Frontiers customer was 47 years ( 2007)Target Market - Socio demographics (Source -Mintel -May 2008)

11. There is a real demand out there for this kind of experiential or adventure travel. These days everyone has everything they need, living daily life is not a challenge; people want excitement, to feel and see things, they want authentic experiences of another world. It has been said that we’re selling dinner party conversations –people want to do something unusual they can talk about.” – Jonny Bealby –Founder of Wild FrontiersMotivations and Money

12. Target market –some real people and their experience

13. Target market and motivations - Georg von Bülow (50 something)Here’s an Everest trekking group - ages ranged from 27 to 61

14. Target market and motivations “The reason most of the people in my group went on this trip was that they wanted to do something unusual and challenging. I guess there was a fair bit of mid-life crisis involved, but for some it was just a question of life style. Why did I go? Difficult to say – I suppose I just wanted to see whether I could do it, apart from my curiosity about seeing the Himalayas”Georg von Bülow - Senior Presales Architect Adobe Systems

15. Target market and motivations - Georg von Bülow

16. Target market and motivations – Chris Humphries – 353 months in South America including: Brazil, Peru and Bolivia

17. Target market and motivations – Chris Humphries – 35“The target market for my trip were people in their 30's they had decided to take time out and travel the world. People that like me were independent, had savings or significant disposable income to fund the trip and the confidence in being able to get another job on return to the UK. Myself and Becs choose to embark on the trip due to a passion for travel and adventure. Travelling through South America is certainly an adventure whilst many parts of Asia can be considered a holiday. Language, cultural barriers and landscape make for a challenging but very rewarding trip”.Chris Humphries – CRM Marketing Manager - Carphone Warehouse (35)

18. Bolivian Mount biking on the Worlds most dangerous roadA dusty single track dirt road descending 3,000m and 60 odd kilometres, vertical drops on the hair pin bends, no crash barriers and even the company said “Only one rider had died in recent years!”.

19. Engaging with the locals…The cute ones in Borneo

20. Engaging with the locals…Bolivian Silver miners –life expectancy 40!

21. Target market and motivations – Ruth Chapman – 32100 day “Americas” trip

22. Target market and motivations – Ruth Chapman – 32Ice trekking in Chile

23. Target market and motivations – Ruth Chapman– 32“Having worked at Red Letter Days and Voyage Concepts for over 5 years, I wanted to taste - as a customer myself for a change -some of the Adventure I’d created on behalf of other customers – all before I was financially committed at home in the UK (House buying etc)”Ruth Chapman ex Red Letter Days and Voyage Concepts

24. Identify and justify future challenges Ideas?

25. Future challenges - Overview"The level of adventure expected in an adventure tourism product is very much dependent on the person's level of expectation and experience of the particular sport or the type of activity chosen. ...furthermore if it is well organised the participant will perceive the risk less than what appears." Novelli, 2005:208 The challenge for the operators is dealing with the risks of operating in this niche market as tourists will expect a certain level of risk - and things can go wrong. Customers can be dissatisfied if they feel they have been unnecessarily exposed to risk and situations they are not skilled enough for. On the other hand, if an activity is too closely supervised then the hard adventure tourism will be a little miffed! For the operators, it is about getting the balance right.

26. Future challenges – some traveller feedback!Difficulty in creating truly “adventurous” destinations. “The route to Everest Base Camp was absolutely crowded, so we never had any feeling of being remote or in the wilderness”.The more of a mass market this becomes, the more incidents and accidents there will be - increasing the holiday costs.“ in our group we had one chain smoker, one seriously overweight person (apart from me, that is), and the four diabetics I mentioned before. The four who had to be helicoptered down (at a cost of $50,000 each!) were among these”.Makes it more difficult to recruit suitable participants, and it drives up the cost of holidays.Environmental impact

27. Future strategies to adopt Thoughts ?

28. Recommend and evaluate future strategies sector might adopt Recruit suitable customersVet potential clients for suitabilityMore rigorous Health and Safety “No new adventures”?! Carbon offsetting and other environmental initiativesRecruit suitable customersVet potential clients for suitabilityMore rigorous Health and Safety Carbon offsetting and other environmental initiatives“No new adventures”?!

29. Questions and AnswersOver to you!