This month I’ve selected articles that focus on “adventure travel”, a very competitive and popular keyword phrase with over 52 million pages featured on Google alone.

With the advent of personal computers and the internet, the world is smaller. People are now globally aware and adventure travellers are demanding more meaningful and challenging experiences. Along with the dare devil, risk taking type activities that have traditionally defined “adventure travel” there is now a growing interest in exploring the unknown and experiencing different cultural activities, eco-friendly destinations, along with participating in volunteer, support work and educational type programmes.

The following articles do not necessarily use the actual keyword phrase “adventure travel”, but they are all related.

New Zealand
TVNZ’s news article suggests that Kiwis are out in front as the most adventurous global travellers. With a population of approximately 4.16 million, New Zealanders are expected to be doing some serious globe trotting next year with 2 million overseas trips estimated for 2007. While Australia and United States are still popular destinations, next year’s hottest holidays will be in more “adventurous destinations”, such as Bhutan, Bulgaria, China, republic of Maldives, Namibia, Oman/Dubai.

According to Flight Centre’s John McGuiness “We kind of go a little bit further a field and a little bit adventurous than most people around the world. Basically we don’t spook easily,”

And while the Kiwis are off travelling the globe, Gisborne herald reports 3 backpackers from Scotland, England and Mexico have been having a real adventure, travelling around New Zealand in a van, selling fresh strawberries, making good money and enjoying the scenery.

Australia
According to eTravel Blackboard from January 2007 all flights sold by Intrepid from Australia will have a Carbon Offset Payment included in the price.

“As passionate as we are about travel, we must be honest with ourselves and recognise that by taking a holiday on the other side of the world we are substantially adding to global warming,” said Intrepid co-founder Darrell Wade. “As a part of the travel industry and the greater travelling community, we must take responsibility for the part we play and seek solutions to this issue.”

News.com.au reports an adventure of a different kind, in the outback. The famous Birdsville Hotel located in western Queensland, close to the Simpson Desert is an ideal setting for an all year round adventure. The owners of the pub want to sell up and move back to Adelaide and are looking for a new owner/s, to keep the watering hole in business for Birdsville’s 100 residents and the many travellers who visit the hotel as a rest stop. Of course the hotel comes with plenty of extremes to keep the experience exciting and challenging - the heat, the cold and the distance. (200km to the nearest hotel).

Mrs Fort (one of the owners) hopes that the hotel will be bought by someone with a passion for the outback. “It’s a big responsibility there to make sure that the image of the outback is retained,” she said. “I really hope it’s an Australian with the enthusiasm and energy and the guts — because they’ll need them — to take on this challenge.”

USA
The Vancouver Sun reports North American Travellers are stepping out of their comfort zones and looking for more extraordinary travel experiences such as cruising and river cruises, community project travel, niche tours and ski holidays where you get to ski and appreciate nature and mountain scapes at the same time. According to Flight Centre’s VP of Marketing Grant Waldeck “As more people continue to travel and the world ’shrinks,’ travellers are searching for experiences that are new, exciting and out of the ordinary.”

For those adventure travellers who want more info before they go see the world. Travelistic is launching in January its first original program, “The Map,” a globetrotting weekly show devoted to the travel experience. Liza de Guia the host of the programme says “The Map’ is covering stories from locales all over the world, cluing our audience into trends, information and humorous stories that they need to know.”

China
This article from Postcrescent.com unfortunately highlights what can happen to an adventure traveller who does take risks. An American woman and her climbing partner are missing on the mountainous region of south-central China. Considered to be two of the world’s top climbers, the woman owns an adventure travel business in Seattle.

United Kingdom
Looks like Flight Centre is on a mission to spread the word that not only are the Kiwis and North Americans looking for extraordinary travel experiences but British travellers are too. Experience.com

Did I mention that Adventure Travel looks like it is becoming more and more mainstream? In the Daily Record, Psychologist Dr Ann Thomas, says “adventure travel is beneficial to the mind, body and soul. As well as improving health and fitness, it can lead to improvements in relationships, higher self-esteem, and it helps take away stressful situations.”

Dominica
The Dominica Island (the setting for several scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3) has launched their new tourism website www.discoverdominca.com. Carribbean Net News reports that through some niche e-marketing they intend to promote Dominica as a premier eco-tourism and adventure travel destination. Minister for Tourism, Industry and Private Sector Relations, Yvor Nassief explains “Dominica is not a mass market product. What we have are niche markets, small niche markets- wellness and adventure, hiking, diving. Smaller but emerging ones would be biking, whale and bird watching… So because we cannot reach them through the mass market we have got to target these niches individually by going after consumers who have these interests and hobbies by specific publications, dive publications, National Geographic Magazine and going after certain websites.”