Adventure tourism products: Price, duration, size, skill, remoteness

Abstract

To test whether commercial tourism products in different adventure activity sectors have different functional characteristics, I took part in tours offered by 75 operators worldwide and analysed price per person per day, duration, prior skill requirements, remoteness, group size and client-to-guide ratios. There is an enormous range of variation. Some activities overlap but some are clearly distinguishable, on commercial as well as operational criteria. Products can be arranged on a scale from low volume, high difficulty, high price to high volume, low difficulty and low price. There are recognisable signatures for some subsectors, but not all.