The adventure travel market in America is growing. To fulfill the need for an adrenalin rush, more and more vacationers are seeking out such demanding and heart-pumping activities as whitewater kayaking, scuba diving and mountain biking, and to a lesser degree, hard backpacking, rock and mountain climbing and snowboarding.
An in-depth adventure travel survey released last month by the Travel Industry Association of America found that 98 million Americans, one-half of U.S. adults, took an adventure getaway within the last five years, and 31 million of those took a hard adventure vacation. Some 25 million American do both hard and soft adventure travel.
Every vacation has a bit of adventure attached to it, but Americans are looking for new experiences that push them mentally and physically.
“American travelers want their vacations to be more thrilling,” said William S. Norman, president and CEO of the Washington-based, non-profit TIA. “They are looking for new ways to challenge themselves. But this trend is also about camaraderie among friends and spending quality time with family.”
The quest for adventure travel also can reveal a reaction to general efforts that try to take risk out of everyday life. “American culture is a real scaredy-cat culture, and people are sick of it,” said Kristen Ulmer, a hard-core adventure addict, in U.S. News & World Report.
But not all adventure travel involves extremes. Among the soft adventure vacations, preferred by 92 million adults, are camping, hiking, biking, skiing, sailing and horseback riding trips, the report noted. Among the nearly 100 million adults who have not taken any adventure trips in the last five years, a fourth said they would be very or somewhat likely to do so in the next five years, the report said, an indication of how the adventure market will grow.
In its hard adventure category, TIA includes whitewater rafting/kayaking, scuba diving, mountain biking, backpacking across rugged terrain, rock climbing/mountain climbing, spelunking/cave exploring, skateboarding/snowboarding, hang gliding/ parasailing/windsurfing, parachuting/sky diving and other extreme sports.
According to the TIA survey, the typical hard adventure traveler is 35 years old, with some college education and full-time employment. A higher than average number are Generation X men–18 to 34 years old–who hold professional or managerial jobs and are single. Nevertheless, one-half are married and one-half have children at home.
While spending varies widely among adventure travelers, the TIA survey found that almost twice as many hard adventure vacations cost $1,000 or more as did soft adventure vacations. And on average, hard adventure travelers spent more than soft adventure vacationers ($465 versus $325, median) on their most recent adventure vacation.
What drives hard adventure travelers?
Two things come to mind, said Dan McAdams, professor of human development and psychology at Northwestern University: sensation seeking and story telling.
A good part of what brings the sensation-seeking motive about is heredity, said McAdams, noting that a person’s environment does play a role. The other driving force behind hard adventure travelers, McAdams said, is the fact our lives are made up of stories that we create about ourselves, stories that require some sort of adventure.
“The general assumption is that everybody has a story of one kind or another,” he explained. “The stories give people’s lives a sense of unity and purpose. What may be going on with some of us is not that we need the stimulation to get by in daily life, but rather that as we’re understanding who we are and creating stories for our lives, we maybe require some chapters and some episodes to update, challenge and spice up the narrative, to give it some forward momentum and thrust.”
McAdams said he has a sense that people pursue adventure so they can talk about their experiences later. “Not just to brag to other people, but really to talk to themselves in their private moments.”
Some adventure travelers need the immediate thrill of the risk and the danger, said McAdams.
As a family activity, adventure travel can bond parents and children, McAdams said. It gives them opportunities to surmount challenges together and enhance the family story.
For all adventure travelers, it’s essential to choose activities within the realm of their capabilities. A little risk for an adrenalin rush or sensation seeking is one thing; being foolhardy to enhance a life story is quite another.
Most adventure travel venues and suppliers place degrees of difficulty on their programs so people don’t overmatch themselves. It pays to ask questions and listen to the answers. If the adventure travel vacation is overseas, for example, know what resources are available should a medical emergency arise. Do your homework. In short, don’t add unnecessary adventure to an adventure vacation.
