Adventure regime of tourism experiences

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate about how to conceptually understand adventure tourism experiences. Whilst previous literature is dominated by an agentic psychological view and, to some extent, a structuralist view, the discussion remains largely limited to how the relationship between individuals and various contextual levels may matter in adventure tourism. From a post-structural position in research on consumer culture, we criticize the dominant perspectives. We theorize ‘adventure regime’ as the conceptual tool that may aid researchers in interpreting the formative role played by structures of social interaction that orchestrate practices of liminal adventure tourism experiences. This paper offers empirical illustrations from a study of winter experiences in Arctic Svalbard and discusses how entities of the adventure regime, together with tourism practices, influence meaning negotiations on tourists’ three-day journey by dog sledge.