Is adventure tourism a coherent concept? A review of research approaches on adventure tourism

The boundaries between adventurous activities and tourism are blurring as evidenced in the diffuse usage of concepts, such as, wilderness, safari, nature guiding, adventurous and adventure with regard to tourism. This blurring is also reflected in research associated with adventure tourism. In our paper, we ask, how is adventure tourism defined and categorized in tourism and associated literature? Our study involved a literature review, including development of a systematic methodology for creating a comprehensive list of articles. The first amount of references that resulted from the literature review totalled 2119. This number highlights that adventure tourism has been widely studied. However, those studies have been dispersed among different disciplines and journals. Based on our literature review, we argue that the term ‘adventure tourism’ as used in tourism research is more like a category than an analytical concept. Hence, we conclude that a reconceptualization of adventure tourism is required.