Package adventure tours: markers in serious leisure careers

Abstract

A BSTRACT The complex experience of kayakers on an adventure tour is explored through the attributes and qualities of Stebbins' concept of serious leisure. Serious leisure is related to Bourdieu's term 'field' or, more descriptively, a 'way of thinking', which provides a theoretical framework appropriate to understanding adventure tourism experiences. The paper is based on observations of participation, conversations and in-depth interviews with nine tourists on a 14-day white-water kayaking package tour of the South Island of New Zealand, in February 2002. Analysis of the resulting field notes and transcripts of interviews and conversations revealed an interpretation of the participants' experience and their understanding of this experience which, although embedded in the images and language of adventure, is focused on serious leisure attributes of personal challenge, status and safe success. The conclusion of this paper is that the package adventure tour experience can be a significant marker in serious leisure careers.

Intimations of postmodernity in sports tourism at the Tour de France

“…Research from a variety of contexts and disciplines -battlefields (Hannaford & Newton, 2008), museums (Chronis, 2006), gastronomic tourism (Everett, 2008), resorts (Andrews, 2005), music tourism (Saldanha, 2002) and adventure activities (Arnould & Price, 1993;Cloke & Perkins 1998;Kane & Zink, 2004) -has elucidated how postmodern subjectivities are embodied via seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching artefacts and people. As Crouch (2000) indicated in his 'lay geographies' approach to leisure and tourism, such embodied practices are both complex and heterogeneous:…”

Contesting authentic practice and ethical authority in adventure tourism

“…In other words, adventure tourism carries forward many neocolonialist practices as a predominantly Western tourist activity (Mowforth & Munt, 2003). And while this can be observed from structural and even post-structural approaches that examine the marketing and commodification of adventure (see Sung, Morrison, & O'Leary, 2000;Weber, 2001;Cloke & Perkins, 1998Kane & Zinc, 2004;Varley, 2006;Fletcher, 2014;Vidon, 2016) and the motivations of adventure tourists (see Ewert, 1985;Christensen, 1990;Csikszentmihalyi & Selega, 1990;Ewert, 1993;Beedie, 2003;Kane & Tucker, 2004), what has not been presented are existential and humanistic perspectives on the ethical dilemmas of these same adventure tourists. As this paper will discuss, many adventure tourists recognize the duplicitous nature of their pursuit -that it is both the result of privilege, and therefore requires a particular responsibility, but many also feel that access should be limited and controlled (primarily for others).…”

Serious Leisure, Health Perception, Dispositional Optimism, and Life Satisfaction Among Senior Games Participants

“…Stebbins has also identified six defining characteristics of serious leisure: (a) perseverance, (b) significant effort, (c) career development, (d) personal and social benefits, (e) expression of self and identity, and (f) unique ethos. Diverse groups of people have been the targets of research in serious leisure literature, as researchers have examined older golfers (Siegenthaler & O'Dell, 2003); people with disabilities (Patterson, 2000); runners (Major, 2001); master swimmers (Hastings, Kurth, Schloder, & Cyr, 1995); volunteers (Gravelle & Larocque, 2005); adventure tourists (Kane & Zink, 2004); and football fans (Gibson, Willming, & Holdnak, 2002). Some studies of serious leisure have investigated the behavior of older adults and discovered that it is conducive to their well-being (Brown, McGuire, & Voelkl, 2008;Siegenthaler & O'Dell, 2003).…”