Commodification and Adventure in New Zealand Tourism

This paper discusses the ways in which the commodification of adventure in tourism has increasingly become implicated in the production and consumption of tourist places. It examines the notion of adventure in tourism and the changing nature of commodification in postmodern and ‘post-tourist ’ times.The rise of adventure tourism in New Zealand is used as an example of how adventure has been commodified. A survey of tourist brochures for adventure tourism attractions in New Zealand reveals some of the particular characteristics of adventure which are being incorporated into commodity form for tourists. These characteristicsinclude place, spectacle, embodied experience and memory. Although aware of the limitations of using textual evidence from brochures, the paper concludes that Best’s (1989)society of the commodity and the society of the spectacle are clearly significant in New Zealand. Sign exchange is also important in the commodificationof adventure although it is concluded that placesand practices are as yet rarely eclipsed by adventure signification. Introduction: The Importance of Commodified Adventure The ‘moulding of culture for tourism and tourists, and the moulding of