Acting in Nature: Service Events and Agency in Wilderness Guiding

Abstract

This article examines one of the key occupations in nature tourism: wilderness guiding. It investigates what it means for the work of guides when nature is simultaneously a product to be sold, an operational environment and a partaker in the tour. The concept of ‘collective’ by Bruno Latour is used as a methodological guideline in investigating guiding as work. By examining a guide’s work as a collective, we can see what kinds of demands this kind of ‘hybrid-work’ requires, how nature is intertwined with customer service practices, and how technology becomes a part of guiding. It is demonstrated that nature and technology play a greater role in shaping tourism practices and performances of employees than previously thought. Nature is an essential part of a guide’s performance; it is an ‘actor’ which participates in constructing the service event of nature tourism.

The softening of adventure tourism

“…Besides the extra arrangements that need to be made by the tourism entrepreneurs as a consequence of the softening of adventure tourism, there is an increased need for multi-skilled personnel working in the destinations. Hence, it becomes evident that the diversification of participants especially influences the type of competencies that are needed from guides (see also Valkonen, 2009). The competency highlighted by all interviewees was the ability of the guides to make circumspect decisions.…”

Current sociological theories and issues in tourism

“…This innovative approach opens up new conceptual and methodological perspectives for tourist studies (Jóhannesson, 2005), but has as yet been rarely, and mostly only recently, introduced into tourism research (Valkonen, 2010;van der Duim, 2007;van der Duim, Ren, & Jóhannesson, 2012). Paget et al (2010) have used ANT in a study of a successful innovative project in a French ski resort; Ren (2011, p. 858) sought to demonstrate, by the use of ANT, how "a rather unlikely [non-human] destination actor, the [polish] oscypek cheese, is enacted in different versions as it engages with tourism, tradition, craftsmanship, hygiene and legislation;" Gren and Huijbens (2012) deployed it in their paper intended to re-introduce the Earth into tourism theory; Rodger, Moore and Newsome (2009) used it to examine the sciencewildlife tourism interface, and John Tribe (2010) used it to analyze the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (IAST).…”

Hospitality in wild places

“…Similarly, Rantala (2010) argues that guides have developed new skills of hostessing to meet tourists' needs, building on Veijola and Jokinen's (2008) original concepts which address the phenomenon of 'feminine' skills in mobile work, in which the service actor's personality is an important factor in experiential product delivery. However, guiding in outdoor settings arguably differs from general guiding practices in that it is largely influenced by and dependent on fluid environmental conditions (Rantala et al 2011;Valkonen 2009). Natural environments are made accessible via the skills of the guide and interpreted to tourists at the same time.…”

“…Likewise, the emergence of a group of Nordic and Northern scholars writing about outdoor experience, leisure and tourism in a deeply phenomenological way has shifted focus and therefore contributed to an increased awareness that there is more to the adventure tourist experience than simply seeking thrill, spectacular 'scream-n-go' experiences in the outdoors (Rantala, Valtonen and Markuksela 2011;Rokenes, Schumann and Rose, 2015;Valkonen, 2009;Varley and Semple 2015). It was thus as a response to the search for rush, speed and leisure activities with commodified thrill that Varley and Semple (2015) introduced the concept of 'slow adventure' with the focus on extension of time, comfort and convenience while pursuing journeys in the outdoors.…”