Analysis of UK Adventure Tourism: Providers, Impacts and Trends

This report provides a comprehensive overview of adventure tourism, focusing on the UK market. It identifies key providers such as Snowdonia Adventure Activities, Dazam, and Adventure Tours UK, detailing the adventurous experiences they offer. The report analyzes the market size, noting the impact of COVID-19 and the projected growth to $4.2 billion by 2030 globally and 1,169,095 million by 2028 in the UK. It examines socio-cultural, economic, and environmental impacts, highlighting both positive aspects like cultural exchange and revenue generation, and negative aspects like racism and environmental degradation. The report also categorizes destinations and activities, distinguishing between hard and soft adventure activities. A SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the industry. Furthermore, the report profiles the typical adventure tourist, noting demographic and geographic trends, and concludes with future trends including luxurious accommodations, cultural experiences, and a focus on environmental sustainability.

Introduction
Adventure tourism can be described as a social phenomenon that is characterised by inclusion of a temporary halt in the everyday routine and engaging one self in adventurous
activities that gain them the experiences which are different from one's daily routine. Tourism can be further of be various forms on the basis of activities involved and the place
being visited, namely adventure tourism, cultural tourism, eco-tourism, wildlife tourism, business tourism, sports tourism etc. This poster aims at describing the key tourism
related concepts while mentioning different types of tourists groups and their requirements. The poster also aims at depicting the relation of tourism with the environment,
society, culture and economy.
Destinations/ activities/ sub-types
•Destinations
•As mentioned above, tourism can be of various forms on the basis of the activities
involved in the process and the tourist site. As per the basic bifurcation the tourist
destinations can be of four types-
•Man-made attractions
•Natural tourist attractions
•Cultural tourists attractions
•Novelty attractions
•Some examples of the destinations for adventure tourism include -Sennen Cove famous
for catching waves, Zip World in North Wales famous as the fastest zip line in world, Lee
valley in Hertfordshire famous for rafting, Snowdon in Wales famous as one of the three
tallest peaks for tracking activities etc.
Activities
The activities involved in the phenomenon of tourism can be collecting information about
the tour destination, physical or adventure activities, activities involving cultural exchange
or interaction with people of other culture, engagement with nature and leisure activities.
The tourism activities can be of two types-
Hard activities- These activities involve activities which involve high risk and very
adventurous and can be dangerous in nature. These activities require supervision of a
professional guide or instructor to perform these activities. Some examples of such
activities are:
•Climbing to mountains,
•Sky diving
•Cave expeditions
•Activities involving ice and rocks
•Scuba diving
•Hiking etc.
Soft activities- These activities are associated with less risk and are less dangerous in
nature. In contrast to hard activities these activities usually do not require a professional
guide to carry out these activities in someone's supervision. These activities include
exploring the places, collecting information about the history of a place, visiting famous
places of that area, leisure activities etc.An examples are boating
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the tourism interest pf the people are
experiencing a major shift towards the adventurous tourism and the
market size of adventure tourism is about to observe a huge hike in
coming years. The above report consist of the key providers of the
adventure tourism in UK and the destinations that are famous for
fulfilling the adventure needs of people. In addition to it consist of the
future trends and information on the strengths and weaknesses
Future trends
• The future trends in the tourism industry will be regarding the
inclusion of a completely new and fresh set of experience providing to
the tourists by adding more adventurous activities at the site.
• The interests of the tourists have already began to shift towards the
more lavish and comfortable settings for residing in between the tour.
Therefore, the travel industry is also shifting its services to being more
luxurious.
• The tourists now a days are being attracted to a more cultural
experience during the tours.
• This is the reason that the places with cultural history and
backgrounds are more preferred by them.
• So the tourist sites are trying to contempt the tourists by incorporating
more cultural activities at the tourist sites for attracting even more
tourists. Also many tourist sites are incorporating adventurous sports.
• As the travel preferences of the tourists are shifting towards areas that
have healthy environment and cleanliness all around.
• So, the government of the areas with a high number of tourist sites are
focusing on maintaining cleanliness in those areas.
Key providers/ organisations
The main organisations that provides its customers from UK and all over the world with adventurous
experiences are:
Snowdonia Adventure activities: The activities provided by Snowdonia adventure are capable of
providing the people with adventurous experience by conducting activities like scrambling, kayaking,
and canoeing
Dazam: Dazam is one provider which has all the travel equipments and does not disappoint any of its
customers seeking adventurous experiences of any sort. It even provides adventurous activities like
mountain biking and activities related to discovering new places.
Adventure Tours UK: Adventure tours promises its customers with activities providing adventurous
experiences along with it also provides accommodation, food and transport facilities.
Ultimate Trail Adventures: This adventure provider is linked with providing adventurous experiences
by conducting activities like walk in mountains of Black mountains etc. It also provides trail running
activities.
Want to Canoe : Want to canoe is responsible for providing adventurous experiences to its customers
by providing then with activities like canoeing and river wye.
Racquet Farm Campsite: Racquet farm campsite provide its customers with post card views of hay-
on-wye. It also offers food and accommodation facilities along with adventurous activities. It also
offers activities like canoeing and fishing activities
Bell Tent Boutique: This provider is linked with providing luxuries adventurous experiences by
providing luxurious accommodation facilities to its customers. It allows its customers to choose from
a huge collection of bell tents and also a huge range of accessories related to tracking.
Raw Adventures : Raw adventures are known for providing its customers with a training skill
courses, and also incorporated challenges in the activities to elevate the level of adventurous
experience
References
•Janowski, I., Gardiner, S. and Kwek, A., 2021. Dimensions of adventure tourism. Tourism
Management Perspectives, 37, p.100776
•.Wang, J., Liu-Lastres, B., Ritchie, B.W. and Pan, D.Z., 2019. Risk reduction and
adventure tourism safety: An extension of the risk perception attitude framework
(RPAF). Tourism Management, 74, pp.247-257..
•Hanna, P., Wijesinghe, S., Paliatsos, I., Walker, C., Adams, M. and Kimbu, A., 2019.
Active engagement with nature: outdoor adventure tourism, sustainability and wellbeing.
Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
•Rantala, O., Rokenes, A. and Valkonen, J., 2018. Is adventure tourism a coherent concept?
A review of research approaches on adventure tourism. Annals of Leisure Research, 21(5),
pp.539-552.
•Bajracharya, R.K., 2021. Adventure Tourism: The new frontier: A Critical Review.
Journal of Tourism and Himalayan Adventures, 3(1), pp.96-99.
Key facts, statistics and impacts
Customer Profile
Demographic
As per the data provided by Statista in United Kingdom men were found to be more
interested in adventure sports. 74 % are males who like adventure sports and 26%
are females of all the people interested in adventure activities. Although the trend of
adventure tourism has observed an increase in the number of females being
interested in adventurous activities. The age group that are more interested in
adventurous activities are those between 20years to 35 years.
Geographic
The adventure ourism market of UK is expected to observe a hike in the coming
years. The areas which are the maximum contributors to the number of tourists who
like adventurous experiences are Italy, Norway, France, Spain, Croatia, Greece,
Canada, Slovenia, Sweden and Iceland . The people from these regions are more
interested in activities like trekking, mountain climbing, skydiving and many more
such adventurous activities.
Other (motivations and behaviour)
The people who are interested in adventure tourism seek their adventurous activities
to be unique. The motivation that works for them is the strive for adventurous
experiences which can provide them the break from work they wanted. The people
between the age of 20-35 years are becoming more and more interested in such
activities as they are interested in exploring the new areas. The feeling of
accomplishment is also one factor because of which these activities are able to
attract the people towards adventure
Environmental impacts
Positive:
• Due to tourism residents of the place become more conscious about maintaining cleanliness in the country.
• The local communities also become aware about the importance of conservation of natural resources and
environment.
Negative:
• Tourism can result in over crowding of the area thus resulting in increase in the pollution levels in that area.
• Tourism can also result in increased utilisation of the natural resources of the region thus being a hindrance
to sustainable use of resources.
Economic impacts
Positive:
• The tourism industry is the one of the highest revenue generating industries which is beneficial for any
country from economic point of view.
• Tourism can also result in increasing opportunities of employment in the country.
Negative:
• Tourism can result in increase in the prices of commodities sold at local shops as the tourists are usually
a wealthy group of people.
• Countries generating high revenue from tourism usually become over dependent on it and does not
invest money in the development of other sectors which can result in difficult times for the country in the
absence of tourism.
Socio-cultural impacts
Positive:
• Exchange of cultures: tourism provide opportunities for exchange of various cultural and social aspects among the
residents of the place and the visiting tourists of that place.
• Inclusion and tolerance benefits: Tourism promotes the inclusion of indigenous people by the government as they
can be an attraction for the tourists thus increasing the tourism value of the place.
Negative:
• Racism: Tourism can at times results in enhancement of the incidences of residents facing racist behaviour of the
tourists.
• Traditional communities relocation: For providing enough space to the to tourism activities, the government might
relocate the traditional communities
Market size The market size of the tourism industry is considered to be huge as this industry is found to be generating a
large amount of revenue. Although the pandemic of COVID was a turning point for the travel industry as it put a
complete halt on the adventure related activities. This resulted in a huge loss to the countries that had tourism as a source
of revenue generation. But still after such a hard time and after such a huge set back the tourism industry is back at
generating huge amount of revenue. As per the statistics provided by Statista 2021, the global market size of adventure
industry reached to about 496 million dollars and is expected to reach to 4.2 billion dollars by 2030. As per the
MEDUSA’s research in adventure tourism, UK is the largest market in Europe for adventure activities. The adventure
tourism market size in UK was found to e 112,227 million dollars in 2020 and is expected to reach to about 1,169, 095
million buy the year 2028.
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Group Name
Tutor name
Strength:
• Increase opportunities for cultural
exchange
• Promote inclusion of traditional
groups
• Source of high revenue generation
• Promote sustainable practices that
contribute to environmental
conservation.
Weakness:
• Can result in increase in racism
• Include activities involving high risk.
• Lead to overpopulation of the area
• Can also result in increase in the
pollution levels
• can lead to over utilisation of the
resources
Opportunities:
• Have opportunities to attain growth on
global levels.
• Increase in the levels on investment
• Increasing interest of the people
towards this type of tourism
Threats:
• Increased opportunities for substance
abuse
• Negative image of the industry due to
illegal traders.
• Natural disasters or pandemics
• Instability in the stock market
• High riska
SWOT
Group Member Names/ID