Tourism in the outdoors : but whose outdoors?

Abstract

Using the outdoors for tourism, general recreation, and education is perceived to be environmentally friendly, but as numbers increase concerns of over-commercialisation, overcrowding, environmental degradation, and longterm sustainability issues of global warming and social inequity, are being raised. These problems are exacerbated because individuals have quite distinct concepts of what the outdoors means to them. In analysing stories of outdoor experiences the concept of the outdoors as geographic locations, which gain meaning from what we do there, what we value, and how we emotionally respond to the experience emerged. This has significance for how outdoor guides and educators build the relationship between their clients and the environment.