Customizando la experiencia – Turismo más allá del simple selfie: uniendo aventura, gastronomía y experiencias en la naturaleza, ¿es de lo más cool? Ponencia del Dr. Peter Varley. Senior Research Fellow. The University of The Highlands and Islands. Director de los Estudios de Grado de Turismo de Aventura, en el 7.º Congreso Internacional de Turismo Rural de Navarra.

1. Peter Varley
ADVENTURE AND ACTIVITY TOURISM: NEW
TRENDS

2. ME
• HOSPITALITY, THEN MARKETING, THEN BACK TO EXPERIENCES
• MY READING – RHYTHMANALYSIS, AND NON-PLACES
• OUR PROJECTS – FOOD, ADVENTURE, NORDIC HEALTHY TOURISM
• (‘Angus’ story’) SCOTLAND – NECORAS, LANGOSTINOS, BUEY, Y MAS! Y…
NOTHINGNESS!
• YOU – NAVARRA / SPAIN
• …A TALE OF TWO CITIES???

3. A TALE OF TWO KAYAKS
1. 2 hour session
2. Sigrid’s fjord exploration

4. IDEAS FOR TODAY
• TIME
• 'Crafting high value experience in Navarra – nature-based
tourism beyond the ‘selfie’ photograph: - linking adventure,
gastronomy and active nature experiences’
• New trends- bringing activity, music, arts, gastronomy and
adventure together in astounding wild places.
• Examples from Norway, Scotland and Spain.

5. WHAT IS ‘ADVENTURE’?
• Originally part of everyday pre-modern life – a means of survival
• War, crusades, exploration / exploitation / colonialism
• Mythology, fairytales, narratives
• Training, education, human resource development
• Leisure / tourism business
• The ultimate luxury?

6. ADVENTURE TOURISM IN CONTEMPORARY
SOCIETY
• From grand tours to ‘capsule-adventure’
• Convenient
• Repeatable, reliable, rationalised
• Quality assured
• Time constrained
• Grew out of adventure education, outdoor centres, Outward Bound, military training
• Much of this is ‘hard’ adventure

7. ADVENTURE TOURISM
• ‘hard adventure’ – 1-8% of $263bn market
• Travel and soft adventure account for the rest!
• Yet we do not cater well for these (second category) massive markets:
• High income, educated market
• 20%+ international growth
• International travellers are looking for longer trip length – 5 day minimum stay
• EVERYONE is talking about massive growth in adventure travel/tourism

8. CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS
• Industrialisation and capitalism
• Separation between urban and rural, urban and ‘wild’
• The advent of the (industrial) holiday
• Sedentary lifestyles – home as techno-leisure centre, obesity,
heart disease, diabetes, mental illness
• Cash rich, time poor consumers
• ‘Cotton-wool kids’
• Hypermodernity – accelerating, technologised lives (Virillo)

9. HYPERMODERNITY
• Virillio – dromology and hypermodernity
• Auge (supermodernity and non-palces)
• Speed, acceleration, technology, image
• The helpless subject (see Giddens and ‘expert systems’)
• The wired subject (Virillio)

10. LEADING TO CONSUMER DEMAND FOR…
• Active holidays
• Healthy holidays
• Skill-based
• Nature-based
• Immersive
• AUTHENTIC
• Cultural
• Gastronomic
• Memorable
• Tell-able!

11. ISSUES FACING THE OUTDOOR TOURISM INDUSTRY
• Ocularity – ‘snap n go’
• Convenience adventure – ‘scream n go’
• Low stay periods
• Seasonality
• Lack of integration across services
• Lack of professionalisation and pride in the industry (externally)
• Elite few who ‘adventure’
• Often low-value jobs
• Poor quality and deteriorating infrastructure

12. THE NEW TRENDS
• Built infrastructure
• Interconnectedness – “tourism is everyone’s business”
• Soft adventure growth
• Mobility, embodiment, learning, time
• Beyond the selfie – STICKY MONEY

13. TACTICS
• ‘ACTIVE TOURISM’ – WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE?
• GASTRONOMY
• GET VISITORS INVOLVED
• CATCH A FISH, FILLET A FISH, COOK A FISH, BUTCHER A DEER!
• PREPARE LOCAL SPECIALITIES
• LET THEM LEAD JOURNEYS - EXPLORE
• SHARE STORIES
• LOCAL HEROES - GREETERS
• CONFRONT MYOPIA – BE STRANGERS! NON-PLACES?
• MARKET IN ENGLISH

14. ‘INSPIRE’
INTERPRET
NATURE (via)
STORIES
PEOPLE
INVOLVEMENT
RELATE
EXPERIENCES

15. CONCLUDING STORY
• ‘Billie’
• What can you do?

16. HUMAN CAPITAL + NATURAL CAPITAL
• = EXPERIENCES, MEMORIES.
• EXISTENTIALLY AUTHENTIC, RATHER THAN
DISNEYFIED VERSIONS
• LOCAL, 21ST C. STORIES AS WELL AS OLD ONES