Soft adventure motivation: an exploratory study of hiking tourism

Bernhard Fabian Bichler · Mike Peters

121 citations0/0 files storedTourism Review

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management

Abstract

Purpose Adventure activities have become the core products of many tourism destinations. Hiking, which is known to be a soft adventure activity, represents an especially important product for many tourism destinations around the globe and in the European Alps. However, little research has explored hikers’ underlying motivation and experiences, which are expected to differ from the hard adventure context, as mountain hiking provides a low risk, but high immersion. This paper aims to determine and explore the underlying dimensions and dynamics of mountain hikers’ soft adventure motivation (SAM). Design/methodology/approach A concurrent mixed-method design that builds on a quantitative survey (N = 379) and qualitative interviews (N = 14) was used to explore SAM factors. This study combined exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis with semi-structured interviews and template analysis. Findings The quantitative results provide six SAM factors and emphasize that “relaxation,” “socializing” and “discovery” contribute to hiking satisfaction, while “recognition” has adverse effects. By triangulating these findings with hikers’ experiences, this study underlines the associated recreational meaning of hiking and provides an in-depth qualitative discussion of SAM factors and the subordinate role of “recognition.” Originality/value The contribution of this paper is a refined understanding of SAM in the hiking context by emphasizing the recreational meaning of mountain hiking. As a result, this study adds an important missing link to previous outdoor tourism and leisure studies by showing the special composition and dynamics of SAM. The findings also support the creation of tailor-made touristic products.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 121 citations exist upstream.

References

2003Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies.2007WITHDRAWN - Mixed Methods Sampling 1977Anomie, ego-enhancement and tourism 2007Mixed Methods Sampling 1992Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport.1990Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking 1999Service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer value: A holistic perspective 2001Repeaters' behavior at two distinct destinations

Cited by

2022Comparing the spatiotemporal behavior patterns of local, domestic and overseas tourists in Beijing based on multi-source social media big data 2024Urban Physical Environments Promoting Active Leisure Travel: An Empirical Study Using Crowdsourced GPS Tracks and Geographic Big Data from Multiple Sources

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.