By Ogova Ondego
Published March 4, 2018
Increase in social media trend has created a huge opportunity for people to travel to previously undiscovered destinations to interact with local populations and connect with their experiences and worldview.
Allied Market Research (AMR), a business-consulting firm operating out of Portland in the United States of American state of Oregon, says that travellers who post their adventure tales on Facebook that it says has become ‘the most preferred social network among travelers to share experiences’, whet the appetite of many would-be-travellers into embarking on adventure tourism of their own.
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AMR projects that the global adventure tourism market shall hit the US$1 335 738 million in 2023, registering a compound aggregate growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4 % from 2017.
In its report titled ‘Adventure Tourism Market by Type, Activity, Type of Traveler, Age Group, and Sales Channel: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast: 2017-2023, AMR says the exponential growth of adventure tourism around the world could be explained by the growing preference of travellers to explore previously undiscovered destinations for activities such as caving, climbing, cycling, hiking, hunting and rafting as they interact with local populations and connect with their core values.
Not even the risk involved in adventure travelling and unpredictable weather conditions have hindered the growth of this niche tourism market that is also promoted through public and private partnership (PPP) initiatives, AMR says.
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Adventure travel, like endurance or extreme sports, involves some risk which call for special skills in order to overcome any challenge that may be encountered by the traveller.
AMR divides the adventure tourism market into categories such as type, activity, type of travellers, age group, sales channel, and geography.
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Based on activity, it is divided into land-based activity, water based-activity, and air-based activity.
Depending on type of travellers, it is fragmented into solo, friends/group, couple, and family.
According to age group, it is categorised into below 30 years, 30-41 years, 42-49 years, and 50 years and older.
The sales channel segment includes travel agent and direct.
In 2016, when the global adventure travel market was valued at US$444 850 million, the land-based activities was the leading revenue contributor to the global market. However, the air-based activities is expected to witness lucrative growth rate during the forecast period, i.e 2017 – 2023.
