Nash, Robert

Ollenburg, Claudia

Undheim, Simen Eikel

The demand for adventure tourism products and increased interest in high risk sports in general has made adventure tourism one of the fastest growing areas in tourism (Buckley, 2007; Llewellyn, Sanches, Asghar, Jones, 2008; The George Washington University, ATTA &amp; Xola, 2009). Included in this niche segment is the high adrenalin, high-risk activity of rock climbing. There is currently limited research or academic literature investigating how rock climbing fits in to the adventure tourism continuum, both as a tourism product and as a recreational activity. It is important for local governing bodies and authorities to understand the benefits associated with encouraging adventure tourism products as part of recreational activities. Allied to this the socioeconomic benefits associated with recreational activities such rock climbing are often over looked by governing bodies. This study investigates the socioeconomic potential and benefits for rock climbing as an adventure tourism product in Australia. Two surveys were used in the report and they were analyzed using SPSS. One of the surveys focused on how rock climbing is perceived amongst tourists. The second survey focused on active climbers and looked at the nature of the activity itself, as well as their economic expenditure on rock climbing. The paper concludes that there is real potential for rock climbing as an adventure tourism product from a socio-economic perspective. Results also indicate that the sport is viewed very differently amongst tourist and active climbers with regards to risk. The paper concludes with some recommendations on how to improve the current position of rock climbing in Australia.</p

The potential of rock climbing as an adventure tourism product and the associated socioeconomic benefits

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