The Adventure Tourism Research Association is pleased to offer an extended call for papers for the 2014 International Adventure Conference, and announce the following keynote speakers for the conference:
- Professor Stefan Gössling, Linnaeus University and Lund University, Sweden and Western Norway Research Institute, Norway
- Renowned Canadian adventurer James Raffan
- Professor Reidar Mykletun, University of Stavanger, Norway
- Chris Doyle, Executive Director-Europe, Adventure Tourism Travel Association, USA
The theme chairs will be:
- Slow Adventure and ’Friluftsliv’: Dr Peter Varley, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland
- Adventure Tourism Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability: Professor Carlo Aall, Western Norway Research Institute
- Adventure Tourism Histories: Dr Ulrike Spring, Sogn og Fjordane University College, Norway
- Philosophical Perspectives: Dr Paul Beedie, University of Bedfordshire, England Adventure Tourism Experiences: Dr Carl Cater, University of Aberystwyth, Wales
Conference Themes
We are now inviting paper and poster presentations, as well as volunteers to convene a session under one or more of the following themes:
‘Slow Adventure’ and ’Friluftsliv’
- The forager’s menu
- Ways of living outdoors
- Considering friluftsliv through a tourism lens
- Learning and leadership in friluftsliv
- Celebrating natural capital
- Protecting, enhancing and using remote places and spaces
- Marketing experiences in the great outdoors
- Working with media and journalists during outdoor experiences
- Creating and branding adventures
- Adventure destination development
- Sustainable adventure tourism destinations and the cruise industry
- Adventure tourism and outdoor recreation as driver of rural development
- Adventure tourism, sustainability and profitability
- Cooperation between small scale nature-based adventure tourism companies and larger tourism companies for increased profitability
- Wild places now and then and the origin of adventure tourism
- The roots of polar region tourism
- Outdoor life and the urban condition, and places in-between
- Adventure and postmodernity
- Philosophies of being outdoors: dwelling and being
- Natural time, industrial time
- The contradictions of sustainable tourism
- The outdoors as a learning space
- Adventure responsibilities
- Storytelling
- Serious leisure
- Supporting adventure experience – transportation and infrastructure
- Mechanized adventures
- Polar adventure tourism
- Moving across land and sea - the journeys of adventure
- Urban adventure
- Professionalization of the outdoor tourism sector
- Future prospects of adventure tourism in the face of climate change
- Adventurous and adventuring bodies
- The commercialization of outdoor recreation: leisure as a source of tourism innovation
The 2014 Adventure Conference
This year’s conference will take place in Sogndal in Western Norway and is organized in cooperation between Western Norway Research Institute, Bratt Moro As, Sogn og Fjordane University College, Sogndal, in association with the Centre for Recreation and Tourism Research, West Highland College UHI, Scotland, and the Adventure Tourism Research Association.
Sogndal is situated in the innermost part of the world longest fjord – the Sognefjord. In the immediate vicinity are landscapes that the renowned National Geographic Traveller magazine in 2009 voted to be the best preserved attraction on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The region also offers one of Norway highest and wildest mountains, Hurrungane, in Jotunheimen National Park, as well as mainland Europe’s largest ice cap: the Jostedalsbreen glacier. Furthermore, the region is known for its cultural landscape populated with still-active, small-scale farms. The regional hub Sogndal is a small town where education and nature- based tourism are cornerstones for the community.
Adventure Tourism Research Association
The relationships and consensus built during the first two conferences have directly led to the creation of the Adventure Tourism Research Association (ATRA), a membership organization which aims to assemble an academic community around these core areas of interest, broad network of leading academics worldwide, forge new writing partnerships, create a peer-reviewed academic journal on adventure tourism and organize this annual conference. The conference fee this year will include a year’s membership of ATRA. In 2014 ATRA will also launch its own journal.