ABSTRACT
Adventure tourism has emerged for lots of reasons, notably: the safety of everyday life makes engaging risk attractive and it has been suggested that humans have an exploratory instinct. Adventure tourism is growing as an area of academic interest. The 'market' for activity holidays taps a deeply rooted need to feel secure at the same time as a capacity to enjoy a sense of freedom and adventure. Adventure tourism has emerged as a 'location' that provides connections from the past to the present, and in doing so allows individuals to construct a sense of identity through a perceived proximity to famous adventurous explorers from history. It is the historical accounts of adventure that provide the raw material for the commodification of adventure: the process is an exchange mechanism between different forms of capital, notably economic, symbolic, and social. Adventure tourism is a social phenomenon with permeable walls so that processes of commodification, consumption and the ensuing implications for identity infiltrate.
