ABSTRACT
In many respects the commercialization of mountaineering and mountaineering tourism resembles similarities to developments in sport tourism (Chapter 1). In this volume we adopt the sport model by Weed and Bull (2004) and Weed (2005) who conceptualize sport and tourism as a complex interplay of activity, people and place. ‘Activity’ relates to the geographical, historical and social development of mountaineering. ‘People’ focuses on those who (directly or indirectly) engage in the activity of mountaineering, which includes the motivation, personality, experience, satisfaction and behaviour of mountaineer tourists. ‘Place’ addresses unique destination contexts relating to the hosting of mountaineers to facilitate their climb, impacts on environment and host community, together with management practices. Thus, for the purpose of this book, we define mountaineering tourism as the activities of mountaineering tourists, their interplay with members of the climbing community and all associated stakeholders, together with associated impacts and management at the environmental and local community level. The final concluding chapter discusses mountaineering tourism based on the three main components of activity, people and place. Before making the concluding remarks we will highlight future considerations for mountaineering tourism and its research.
