How can we manage risk in adventure tourism?

How can we manage risk in adventure tourism so that the excitement,
opportunity and benefits are enhanced but the numbers of accidents and
fatalities are reduced?
In general, risk is considering as a key component of adventure activities. The
majority of adventure visitors accept risk as an integral part of the attraction.
There would be a strong desire of visitor to belong as a part of this kind of
tourism. They willing to participated in adventure activities that contains
unpredictable risk. To some extents, the risk is necessary to be recognized by
participants and strictly manage by operators to protect not only tourists’
safety but also the organization’s sustainability. Therefore, management risk is
very crucial in adventure tourism. Besides, on the general theme of adventure
tourism, there should also paid attention to an effective management to not
only decrease the number of victims in adventurous tour but also raise the
advantages and opportunity when participate in adventure tourism.
Adventure tourism is basically defined as an activity where the outcome
is uncertain, and the participants should experience the activities which
contains risk. While risk is a vital element of the adventure tourism
experience, from an ethical perspective, there could be some concerns
about provide safety environment for participant as well as support them
in accessibility and heath protection (Richter & Richter, 1999).
There is a scientific recognition that a high level of “perceived risk” is an
important attraction of this kind of tourism. In the vast majority of
participants in adventure activities every year, accidents do occur from
time to time. An evidence show that certain activities present a serious
actual risk to the health and safety of participants, approximately 70% of
adventure tourism caused injuries (Swarbrooke, Beard, Leckie, &
Pomfret, 2003). Those unavoidable accidents also received the attention
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of visitor as it is a part of reason why they choose to take part in

adventure tourism. It is notable that these dangerous activities attract the
tourism markets who are prepared to gamble their personal safety, and
at times their life in search of an excitement rush or an unusual
achievement (Bentleya, Page, Meyer, Chalmers, & Laird, 2001).
That is the reason why the risk management in adventure tourism is
much more depend on visitor’s expectation and their perceived of risk,
therefore the operator need to clearly classify their client’s perception to
give out an appropriate managing.
Indeed, the non- mountainous adventurous activities such as bungee
jumping, sky-diving which consider as high “perceived risk” were not
certainly represent the high number of injury morbidity compared to
mountainous adventurous activities. For example, the highest injuryincidence was found for mountain-based activities such as skiing,
climbing and trekking, which mainly involve independent unguided
participants (Bentley, Page, & Laird, 2001).

Moreover, the tour operators have some influence on visitor’s risk
perception. For example, guide can take the risk high to make the
experience seem more interesting or talk them down to prevent over
arousal and subsequent loss of control by tourists.
Trekking is still the most popular sport among visitors. The geographical
and natural diversity and a range of exotic culture make Nepal an ideal
place for trekking. Trek to the Himalayas of Nepal provides an
opportunity to observe the culture and enjoy the beauty of nature. White
water rafting on Himalayan Rivers across the typical cross section of
Nepal’s geography is equally popular. You can coast on clam jade
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waters with splendid view all around or rush through roaring
rapids. Rafting is inarguably the best way of exploring Nepal, as it takes

you through hamlets, canyons, virgin forests, and wildlife.
On average, there are about 2 or 3 fatalities a year amongst school
children on visits, but only one tends to be directly related to the
adventure activities. Most deaths on school visits are due to road traffic
accidents or drowning. The risk of death, or even serious injury, is very
low and about the same as we all face in everyday life.
Although the risk is low, when something does go wrong and an incident
occurs, particularly involving a young person, it can provoke public
concerns.

Sometimes, these concerns are justified - on occasions

safety standards have fallen far below what is expected and society can
reasonably expect action against those responsible. On other occasions
an accident simply happens and no one can, or should, be blamed.
28.

All adventurous activity has an element of danger; adventure implies

that there is an element of the unknown. It is important in assessing the risks
to acknowledge this and recognise that the aim is to ensure the activity is as
safe as necessary, not as safe as possible.
In doing this it is useful to think about these four ‘Cs’:

•

Competence – recruitment, induction, training and validation for

particular tasks and activities, monitoring staffing the field, further training and
experience, and accessing external advice as appropriate;

•

Control – deploying the right instructors to the right activities; allocating

responsibilities; supervising:

and keeping people focused, motivated and

committed;
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•

Co-operation

–

between

individuals,

groups,

middle-managers

(programme managers, training managers, etc) and senior managers; and
•

Communications – with staff and others whether spoken, written or

visible.
Risks in tourism stem from two main sources: a lack of knowledge about the
tourism destination especially compared to usual place of residence, and lack
of knowledge of future conditions, ranging from the weather to extreme
natural or societal hazards (Chang, 2009). The intangibility, inseparability,
heterogeneity and perishability of tourism products make it particularly
difficult to assess risks (Mitchell & Greatorex, 1993)

38.

The safety of someone taking part in an adventurous activity under their

own (or peer) leadership is primarily influenced by their own experience,
knowledge, competence and judgement.
Tour operator or other relevant companies need emergency management
plans for all foreseeable emergencies. There would be a regulations for all
staffs so that when a emergency occur, everyone should know what to do.
The purpose of this essay is to set out the management strategies of risk in
related to adventure activities.

While adventure tourism provides some extensive risks up to and including
potential death or disability due to the dangers involved, legal and moral
concerns appear to be in conflict. Currently, travel companies have provided
many safety insurance, upgrade facilities and security equipment as well as
enhance the standard of guides.
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