Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
in this chapter. Since the early 1990s, outdoor and adventure tourism has
accounted for a growing share of the global market in travel and recreation.
White-water rafting, wilderness camping, ocean kayaking, scuba diving and
mountain biking are among the activities and experiences people will pay
(often large amounts of money) for - preferably if they occur in beautiful,
spectacular and remote locations at home or abroad (like Clayoquot Sound).
Facilitated by more affordable and available road, water and air transporta-
tion, outdoor and adventure tourism is arguably a growth industry for two
reasons.
First, the widespread belief that environmental despoliation is the rule not
the exception in the twenty-first century has drawn more people to areas
perceived to be 'vestiges' or 'remnants' of a once bountiful natural world
now in need of protection. Second, the lifestyles of Western individuals
have become ever more urbanised and sedentary, engendering a felt need
for 'escape'. Over 80 per cent of people in countries like France, Australia
and Germany spend most of their time in environments of concrete, brick,
tarmac, stone, glass, processed wood, paint, plastic and metal where road
traffic congestion is normal and ambient noise levels are often high. Because
of the 'post-industrial' character of these countries' economies, most adults
have office (or otherwise indoor) jobs in which they daily interact with a
computer (or other technology) in heated or air-conditioned buildings with
artificial lighting. In the domestic sphere, a range of electronic devices, from
televisions to washing machines to food processors, conspire to keep people
indoors and spare them much physical exertion. The British nature writer
Roger Deakin thus opines that 'In so far as “Western” people have forgotten
how to lay a wood fire, or its fossil equivalent in coal, they have lost touch
with nature' (Deakin, 2007: xii).
The people Deakin describes share the sentiment. Many of them want
sensory contact with its antithesis: that is, a world designed not by peo-
ple but by the (seemingly) 'self-organising' forces that have, over millennia,
given rise to diverse ecosystems and landforms. As Charles Louv (2005),
author of
Last child in the woods
, would have us believe, many Western city
make up the deficit is not just about nature 'out there' for its own sake: it's
also about how walking, climbing, skiing, swimming, sailing and camping
in it makes people feel about themselves, both physically and mentally.
20
On the global stage, a relatively select number of destinations dominate
the market in ecotourism and adventure travel. They include rural New
Zealand, Alaska, Costa Rica, Belize, Nepal, Kerala (in India), rural Australia,
Hawaii, Ecuador and Borneo. As anthropologist Adrian Peace (2001: 175)
noted,
...
...
All tourist venues are sold on the strength of their
distinctiveness
[But]
eco-tourism and adventure travel especially privilege
...
the experiences that
...
visitors might variously derive from contact with
[nature].
