adventure is now discussed, with an emphasis on features that place a client at
greater risk relative to other adventure participants.
The Adventure Tourism Participant
The participant brings a range of previous experience and expectations to the
adventure. Our research of rafters has supported the notion that clients’ fear per-
ceptions, induced by physical hazards, and control over those fears (both before
and during the activity), are central to the resultant adventure experience (Morgan,
2000). Other research has shown that adventure clients rate operator safety stan-
dards as the most important feature of an adventure activity (e.g., Hall and
McArthur, 1994).
The activity guide plays a critical role in manipulating clients’ perceptions of
safety, fear, and control. The guide is critical to clients’ experiences of adventure.
From our experience working in
and researching this industry, adventure guides
manage and plan the trips to minimize the
real
risks while delivering to clients the
essential elements of a core adventure experience. Through this process, the adven-
ture participants may not even be aware of the potential risks and the method of
their management. The following example outlines the adventure process in a
white-water rafting activity.
Adventure tourism activities typically begin with a safety talk to the client
group. This will normally include an explanation of the adventure and use of
equipment.
Following the talk, and depending on the nature and duration of the
activity, the adventure operator may give experienced or competent clients more
scope and responsibility when dealing with the inherent risks. Allowing com-
petent participants to exercise more control over the activity will enhance their
experience of perceived risk (and the adventure experience) without necessarily
compromising client safety. For example, clients that have repeated the same
adventure a number of times do not always need to undertake basic training in the
standard tasks of the activity (the standard tasks in a white-water rafting activity
include holding on,
back paddling, and assuming the white-water floating
position). The limited activity time can instead be used to encourage more
experienced clients to build on the standard tasks through developing higher level
rafting skills. This might include navigating a raft through a particular rapid
by initially choosing a line and then calling instructions to other paddlers in the
raft, this skill development occurring under the watchful eye of the trained river
guide.
In contrast, novice clients will hold only vague expectations of what skills might
be involved in an adventure activity. Novice white-water rafting participants, for
example, may not even
expect to put in any effort, apart from occasionally holding
on to the raft. This underlines the importance of novices becoming used to the
activity and equipment before becoming subject to risks beyond their perceived
control. For example, novice rafters usually have paddling skills practice with their
individual rafting guide before or shortly after launching. Successfully training
novice paddlers with minimal prior knowledge can become extremely important
during the adventure. Training not only enhances the client’s experience of the
activity, but enhances safety as well; the guide may need to rely on the client’s
compliance and training in situations of real risk exposure.
Risk Management for Australian Commercial
Adventure Tourism Operations
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For example, the rafting guide would aim ideally to be able to guide the raft
down a river with a minimum of reliance on the crew; however, in some settings
often precise and coordinated paddling is required from all crew members in the
raft to avoid hazardous circumstances such as those presented by large stopper
waves. Capsizing on a particularly hazardous rapid might create strong psycho-
logical distress within a client (and this condition can also contribute to potential
physical danger).
Interestingly, a lack of awareness of the true potential risk in an adventure activ-
ity can result in participants holding very different risk perceptions compared to
those held by guides and operators.
For adventure clients, their perceived risk
becomes the defining feature of the adventure experience (Morgan, 2000). Clients’
expectations of risk can arise through a number of causes including the likelihood
of physical injury, the possibility of not receiving value for money, or the potential
advent of psychological distresses through social discomfiture (Cheron and
Ritchie, 1982). Notwithstanding this expectation of risk, clients’ perceived risks
during the adventure have been inextricably linked with their fears, awareness of
dangers, anxiousness, and feelings of personal control (Morgan, 2002).
A range of preexisting factors will also influence client
risk perceptions during
adventure tourism activities. These include previous experience in the situation,
personality, age, gender, and culture (Kasperson and Dow, 1993). Participants’
level of control, mood, personality, and group dynamics also influences risk per-
ceptions. To summarize, individuals tend to perceive less risk in behavior that is
voluntary, under personal control, or undertaken as part of a group. Adventure
tourists typically undertake activities voluntarily and as part of a group. The level
of a participant’s personal control in the activity, however, will vary between indi-
viduals and activities.
Individuals who carry accurate perceptions of the activity’s risk would be
expected to pay close attention to information and training
provided by the opera-
tor. Where participant perceptions of risk are flawed or biased or if critical infor-
mation is absent, participants may not be prepared for the risks they encounter.
This occurrence becomes more likely in activities with inadequate management
practices or where atypical environmental events in the setting have not been pre-
dicted. These aspects are discussed in the following sections.
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