Motivational Factors Enticing Young Travelers to Engage in Adventure Tourism Activities

Adventure tourism is one of the relatively new fields of tourism, which has undergone a higher dynamic than the field in general. This study highlights the important factors taken into account by young people when they decide to choose a tourist destination so as to practice one form or another of adventure tourism. The paper completes the previous research done by specialists, synthesizing the factors that characterize adventure tourism. They were identified following a qualitative research, based on in-depth interviews with young people from 32 countries, interested in practicing this form of tourism. The research undertaken determined 16 centralizing factors, which will be used later in a quantitative research, to be validated and to support the design of a statistical-mathematical model for characterizing adventure tourism. Many researchers have described adventure tourism in terms of the unique physical characteristics of the locations where it is practiced. The added value of the current research is the identification of 16 motivational factors that characterize adventure tourism, from the perspective of those who want to practice this relatively new form of tourism. In addition to the motivational factors, the paper also outlines a typical profile of the user of adventure tourism services.