A Review of the Current Literature on Female Adventure Tourists

1. A Review of the Current Literature on Female Adventure Tourists Adele Doran

2. Presentation Outline • Proposed title and research objectives • Review of literature and gaps in research • Next steps

3. The motives, constraints and benefits for women of packaged mountain adventure tourism Research Objectives: • To understand how female adventure tourists perceive adventure • To identify the motivations of female mountain adventure tourists • To examine the constraints on female mountain adventure tourists • To investigate how women negotiate with adventure tourism in their lives • To identify and compare the benefits that female mountain adventure tourists derive from female-only and mixed gender packaged adventure tourism

4. Female Adventure Tourists • Account for 60% of small group adventure, many choosing to travel alone (Mintel, 2009) • Hard adventure sports VS Soft adventure sports (AATA, 2010) • Adventurous activities provide an opportunity (Myers, 2010): • For personal challenge, to overcome fear, develop skills, increase confidence, gain empowerment and adventure capital • To experience natural environment – activate and heighten bodily senses and inner feeling of happiness

5. Female Adventure Tourists The embodiment of tourism (Small, 2007) • Bodily movement: Physical activities liberated and controlled • Sensual experiences: Sounds (the crisp sound of snow), smells (salt water, animals and flowers), taste (food and drink) and touch (weather) • Emotional experiences: Happiness, excitement, negative emotions (shame, guilt, embarrassment, fear and hurt) • The body as a project: Clothes, objects of the gaze of others and themselves

6. Female Adventure Tourists: Areas of Further Research • Timothy, 2001 • Women travellers use of space, interests and desires • Pennington-Grey and Kerstetter, 2001 • The benefits women seek through pleasure travel • Helpful in product development, promotional strategy and target marketing • Small, 2007 • Commodification (exploitation) of women’s bodies in the promotion of tourism

7. The Meaning of Adventure for Women • Women define adventure as doing something different (Little 2002a, Little and Wilson, 2005) • Risk an element of definition – minimised through gaining skills or altering the activity to match abilities (Little, 2002a) • Women do not perceive themselves to be adventurous • Media’s perceptions of adventure restricts their own acknowledgement of adventure in their lives (Little, 2002a and Little and Wilson, 2005)

8. Constraints and Negotiating Strategies for Female Adventurists • The technical nature of adventure • Perceptions of self-doubt • Fear • Guilt with regards to their sense of commitment to others / gender role expectations • Lack of experience • Perception of adventure • Unwelcoming (Warren, 1996) • Not matched to their learning preferences (Warren, 1996) Source: Elsrud, 2002; Little, 2002b

9. Negotiating Strategies for Female Adventurists • Adventure recreation (Little, 2002b): • Making time in their lives for adventure • Compromising through extending, shortening or intensifying their time devoted to adventure recreation • Becoming a ‘creative adventurer’ • Anticipation by planning and preparing for future adventures • Tourism: Construction of adventure through ‘emancipative stories’ (Elsrud, 2005): • Placing adventure as a means of taking charge of identity • Claiming that women are competent adventurers too • Placing women alongside men on the adventure trail

10. Negotiating Strategies for Female Adventurists • Constraints do not prevent participation • They can influence the decision and negotiation process to participate (Little, 2000) • Individual’s motivations, preferences and negotiation skills influence an individual’s response and recognition of constraints • Some constraints are socially constructed – not easy/quick to deconstruct • Tourism industry needs to understand constraining factors that may prevent women from participating in adventurous activities (Hudson, 2000; Wilson and Little, 2005)

11. Reasons for choosing a female-only experience (McDermott’s, 2004) Key Benefits (Hornibrook et al, 1997) Participating with like-minded women with similar interests Opportunity to develop skills in a supportive environment To learn from female facilitators who provide a positive role model Being able to talk freely • Meet and be with other women • Perceived sense of ‘equality’ • For learning and performing psychical skills • Empowering women physically and socially (gender resistance) • Exclusivity of all-women programmes and sense of community (Hornibrook et al, 1997) • New experiences in a non-competitive environment

12. Women Adventure Programmes • Women can feel intimidated by men in mixed gender groups (Nolan and Priest, 1993) • Women often expect different outcomes than men (Nolan and Priest, 1993) • Programmes must be designed to recognise women’s needs (Hornibrook et al, 1997; Nolan and Priest, 1993)

13. Women Adventure Programmes: Areas of Further Research • Comparative research on: • Benefits and motivations associated with both all male, all female and mixed gender adventure programmes • Should utilise male, female and mixed gender facilitators with male, female and mixed gender participants Source: Hornibrook et al, 1997

14. Concluding Points • These studies have revealed that: • Women perceive adventure differently to men • Due to a wide rage of constraints, including gender role expectations, women have utilised negotiation strategies to maintain adventure in their lives • Shared experiences and the friendships that arise from participation in adventure activities is important • Women value women-only programmes and derive unique benefits from such experiences

15. Next Steps • Develop conceptual framework and research design • Qualitative and inductive approach • Interpretive model • Ethnographic orientation • July – Pilot field work

16. Questions? Feedback?

17. References • AATA (Adventure Travel Trade Association). 2010. Adventure Tourism Market Report. Available from: http://www.adventuretravelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Adventure-Travel-Market-2010FINALAug26.pdf (Accessed 01 December 2011). • Bialeschki, M. D. 1994. Re-entering Leisure: Transition Within the Role of Motherhood. Journal of leisure Research, 26 (1), 57-74. • Boniface, M. 2006. The Meaning of Adventure Activities for ‘Women in the Outdoors’. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 6 (1), pp. 9-24. • Culp, R. 1998. Adolescent Girls and Outdoor Recreation: A Case Study Examining Constraints and Effective Programming. Journal of Leisure Research, 30 (3), pp. 356-379. • Elsrud, T. 2001. Risk creation in travelling: Backpacker Adventure Narration. Annals of Tourism Research, 28 (3), pp. 597-617. • Elsrud, T. 2005. Recapturing the Adventuress: Narratives on Identity and Gendered Positioning in Backpacking. Tourism Review International, 9, pp. 123-137. • Henderson, K. 1996. Women and the Outdoors: Towards Spiritual Empowerment. In: Warren, K. (Ed) Women’s Voices in Experiential Education. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. • Hudson, S. 2000. The Segmentation of Potential Tourists: Constraint Differences between Men and Women. Journal of Travel Research, 38, pp. 363-368. • Hornibrook, T., Brinkert, E., Parry, D., Seimens, R., Mitten, D. and Priest, S. 1997. The benefits and motivations of all women outdoor programmes. The Journal of Experiential Education, 20 (3), pp. 152-158.

18. References • Little, D. 2000. Negotiating Adventure Recreation: How Women can Access Satisfying Adventure Experiences Throughout their Lives. Loisir et societe/Society and Leisure, 23 (1), pp. 171-195. • Little, D. 2002a. How do women construct adventure recreation in their lives? Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 2 (1), 55-69. • Little, D. 2002b. Women and Adventure Recreation: Reconstructing Leisure Constraints and Adventure Experiences to Negotiate Continuing Participation. Journal of Leisure Research, 34 (2), pp. 157-177. • Little, D. and Wilson, E. 2005. Adventure and the Gender Gap: Acknowledging Diversity of Experience. Loisir et societe/Society and Leisure, 28 (1), pp. 185-208. • McDermott, L. 2004. Exploring intersections of physicality and female-only canoeing experiences. Leisure Studies, 23 (3), pp. 283-301. • Mintel, 2009. Activity Holidays – UK. February 2010. Available from: http://academic.mintel.com.lcproxy.shu.ac.uk/sinatra/oxygen_academic/my_reports/display/id=479866&anchor=atom/display/id=508092/display/id=508051#atom3 [Accessed 26 November 2011]. • Myers, L. 2010. Women Travellers’ Adventure Tourism Experiences in New Zealand. Annals of Leisure Research, 13 (1-2), pp. 116-142.

19. References • Nolan, T.L. and Priest, S. 1993. Outdoor Programmes for Women Only? Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership, 10 (1), pp. 14-17. • Pennington, L.A. and Kerstetter, D.L. 2001. What Do University-Education Women Want from Their Pleasure Travel Experiences? Journal of Travel Research, 40, pp. 49-56. • Pohl, S., Borrie, W. and Patterson, M. 2000. Women, Wilderness and Everyday Life: A Documentation of the Connection between Wilderness Recreation and Women’s Everyday Lives. Journal of Leisure Research, 32 (4), pp. 415-434. • Small, J. 2007. The Emergence of the Body in the Holiday Accounts of Women and Girls. In: A. Pritchard, N. Morgan, I. Ateljevic and C. Harris. eds. Tourism and Gender: Embodiment, Sensuality and Experience. Wallingford: UK: CAB International. pp. 73-89. • Timothy, D.J. 2001. Gender relations in tourism: Revisiting patriarchy and under-development. In Y. Apostologpoulos, S. Sonmez and D. J.Timothy. eds.Women as producers and consumers of tourism in developing regions. Westport, CT: Praeger. pp. 235-248. • Wilson, E. and Little, D. 2005. A ‘Relative Escape’? The Impact of Constraints on Women who Travel Solo. Tourism Review International, 9, pp. 155-175.