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Abstracts of Articles of TRR Vol.29(1), 2004
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| Challenges
and Opportunities for Adventure Tourism The Case of Patagonia,
Chile
(Philip
Feifan Xie & Paige P. Schneider) |
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Adventure
tourism has become one of the fastest growing tourism segments
in recent decades. The majority of research on adventure
tourism has focused on the adventure travellers’ preferences
as well as the specific benefits derived by travellers as
a result of tourism experiences. From a supply-side perspective,
an adventure destination can be seen as a bundle of tourism
facilities and services composed of a number of multi-dimensional
attributes. This paper attempts to use the supply-side analysis
to examine the challenges facing Patagonia, Chile as an
international adventure destination. It was based on findings
from in-depth interviews with various tourism planning officials,
tour operators and industry workers from both Chile and
North America. Challenges stem from the region’s peripheral
location, blurred image, limited tourism infrastructure,
and a lack of political support from the government. The
results suggest that though the limited accessibility and
tourism infrastructure are not currently viewed as negatives,
the degree of expansion needs a comprehensive evaluation.
The restructuring of a tourism board that combines a hybrid
of the public and private sectors may help overcome the
lack of support from government. Tourism education should
be given priority and government should be encouraged to
provide on-site training for people working in the field
of adventure tourism.
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Copyright Tourism Recreation Research & Tej Vir Singh |
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