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Welcome
to Outdoor Adventure!
Adventure travel can take you to far away places,
to the top of mountains, into jungles or to some of the wildest and
remote places on earth, but adventure travel does not necessarily mean
a trip to an exotic, far away place. Interesting things to see
and do can often be found close to where one lives. They are many places that are
not as well publicized as the popular locations. You just have to look
harder to find them. They can include small local museums, houses
of special interest, such as the birthplace of an important person,
small sanctuaries for wildlife and flora, historical or restored
buildings, or small communities dating back to historic times. The
list is endless once you start looking.
Eco travel, also known as ecological tourism, appeals to the ecologically conscious. Ecotravel typically involves travel to destinations where the flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. Responsible ecotourism includes programs that minimize the negative aspects of conventional tourism on the environment. In addition to evaluating environmental and cultural factors, an integral part of ecotourism is the promotion of recycling, energy efficiency, water conservation, and creation of economic opportunities for the local communities. Generally, ecotourism focuses on volunteering, personal growth, and learning new ways to live on the planet.
Adventure tourism involves exploration or travel to remote, inaccessible and possibly hostile areas where the traveler should expect the unexpected. Adventure tourism may require the ability to perform acts that require significant effort and may also involve some degree of risk. Mountain climbing expeditions, trekking, bungee jumping, rafting and rock climbing are a few examples of adventure tourism. Adventure tourism is rapidly growing in popularity as tourists of all ages look for different and unusual vacations instead of the typical beach vacation.
Extreme tourism involves travel to dangerous places, such as mountains, jungles, deserts and caves, or participation in dangerous events. Extreme tourism and extreme sports overlap. They share the main attraction, the adrenaline rush caused by an element of danger, and differ mainly by the degree of involvement. Adventure experiences and extreme sports create psychological and physiological arousal. For some, adventure becomes a major pursuit in and of itself.
Adventure sports, also called action sports and extreme sports, are perceived as having a high level of inherent danger or difficulty and often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion, and highly specialized gear. The term was first used for sports such as skydiving, scuba diving, surfing, rock climbing, snow skiing, water skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, mountain climbing, cave exploration, storm chasing, hang gliding, and bungee jumping. Nowadays, the term extreme sports refers more to youth sports like skateboarding and snowboarding. This shift may be partly a generational shift as Baby Boomers and Generation X have aged and marketing associated with extreme sports shifted toward the younger generation sometime in the mid to late 1990s. |
