Cargando…

Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway

This paper investigates how tourists and guides perform sustainability during adventure tourism trips in natural environments. The paper draws on empirical data from an ethnographic study of five different multi-day trips in Norway, each of which used skiing, hiking, or biking as the mode of travel....

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rosenberg, Axel, Lynch, Pip M., Radmann, Aage
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8225950/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34179776
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.686459
_version_ 1783712178728075264
author Rosenberg, Axel
Lynch, Pip M.
Radmann, Aage
author_facet Rosenberg, Axel
Lynch, Pip M.
Radmann, Aage
author_sort Rosenberg, Axel
collection PubMed
description This paper investigates how tourists and guides perform sustainability during adventure tourism trips in natural environments. The paper draws on empirical data from an ethnographic study of five different multi-day trips in Norway, each of which used skiing, hiking, or biking as the mode of travel. In our analysis, we focus on how the different actors understood, operationalized and practiced elements of sustainability in their everyday lives while on the trips. The paper applies a micro-sociological perspective to the nature-based adventure tourism scene where the interplay between tourists, guides, adventure activities and nature is understood as multiple dialectic performances co-produced by the different actors. Goffman's dramaturgical metaphors, and concepts of frames, appearance, and manner saturate recent research on tourism and nature guiding. This paper builds on the “performance turn” as a theoretical point of departure for understanding sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism experiences. In participant observations and post-trip interviews with Norwegian and international tourists and their guides, we found that sustainability performances were not a major aspect of the trips. We did find some performances of mainly “light” sustainability and, among them, elements of ambivalence and ambiguity. Our data indicate that some guides tread a fine line between enhancing and deepening tourists' experiences of nature and sustainability or negatively impacting the perceived enjoyment imperative of the trip. International tourists expressed deeper sustainability overall. We reflect on the relative explanatory strengths of Goffman's “frames” and interaction order, and Persson's “framing,” for understanding the interplay between guide and tourist sustainability performances and conclude with pointers for teasing out the complexities we identify.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8225950
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82259502021-06-26 Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway Rosenberg, Axel Lynch, Pip M. Radmann, Aage Front Sports Act Living Sports and Active Living This paper investigates how tourists and guides perform sustainability during adventure tourism trips in natural environments. The paper draws on empirical data from an ethnographic study of five different multi-day trips in Norway, each of which used skiing, hiking, or biking as the mode of travel. In our analysis, we focus on how the different actors understood, operationalized and practiced elements of sustainability in their everyday lives while on the trips. The paper applies a micro-sociological perspective to the nature-based adventure tourism scene where the interplay between tourists, guides, adventure activities and nature is understood as multiple dialectic performances co-produced by the different actors. Goffman's dramaturgical metaphors, and concepts of frames, appearance, and manner saturate recent research on tourism and nature guiding. This paper builds on the “performance turn” as a theoretical point of departure for understanding sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism experiences. In participant observations and post-trip interviews with Norwegian and international tourists and their guides, we found that sustainability performances were not a major aspect of the trips. We did find some performances of mainly “light” sustainability and, among them, elements of ambivalence and ambiguity. Our data indicate that some guides tread a fine line between enhancing and deepening tourists' experiences of nature and sustainability or negatively impacting the perceived enjoyment imperative of the trip. International tourists expressed deeper sustainability overall. We reflect on the relative explanatory strengths of Goffman's “frames” and interaction order, and Persson's “framing,” for understanding the interplay between guide and tourist sustainability performances and conclude with pointers for teasing out the complexities we identify. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8225950/ /pubmed/34179776 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.686459 Text en Copyright © 2021 Rosenberg, Lynch and Radmann. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sports and Active Living
Rosenberg, Axel
Lynch, Pip M.
Radmann, Aage
Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway
title Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway
title_full Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway
title_fullStr Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway
title_full_unstemmed Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway
title_short Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway
title_sort sustainability comes to life. nature-based adventure tourism in norway
topic Sports and Active Living
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8225950/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34179776
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.686459
work_keys_str_mv AT rosenbergaxel sustainabilitycomestolifenaturebasedadventuretourisminnorway
AT lynchpipm sustainabilitycomestolifenaturebasedadventuretourisminnorway
AT radmannaage sustainabilitycomestolifenaturebasedadventuretourisminnorway