{"title":"‘Into the darkness’ – The caving community and their tourist experiences. The Polish case","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jort.2024.100828","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Descent into the underground requires from explorers not only a high level of physical endurance, technical skills, and ability to use specialized equipment, but also psychological adaptation to severe cave conditions: the darkness, the coldness, and the unknown. The paper focuses on mental states and emotions that accompany cave descents at every stage of the tourist experience. The study examines cavers' tourist motivations as well as perceived benefits of this kind of physical activity. The research aims at the Polish caving community. The study indicates that participation in cave exploration for respondents undertaking cave challenges outside of regular tourism is generally the result of a combination of equally strong factors, rather than a single dominant motivation. The benefits of cave exploration are inwardly directed, those related to creating one’s external image were of marginal importance among survey respondents. A state of ‘focus and concentration’ accompanies cavers during almost the entire stay in cave what not lessen a sense of overall satisfaction, joy, and excitation. To some extent, anxiety, anger, and rarely fear, shape the cave tourist experience.</div></div><div><h3>Management implications</h3><div>The tourism product of any kinds of tourism should meet the expectations and needs of their participants. Dedicated speleotourists visiting sites outside mass tourism in popular show caves are leading by the complex of motivations typical for tourism as such. However, in the study analysed, the search for beauty and aesthetic impressions next to experiencing the unknown and novelty are explicitly significant motivators for cave exploration, even more important than looking for sport challenges and physical effort. This observation underlines cognitive and emotional meaning, not only sport character of cave exploration.</div><div>The research might suggest the general direction in preparation of the offer for dedicated cave tourists: they do not require the creation of new infrastructure (e.g. in terms of cave accessibility) or provision of new amenities, but possibilities of the improvement of technical skills, while enjoying the beauty of the caves, with maintaining a balance between commercialization and the sense of uniqueness and exclusivity of the product.</div><div>As pristine and unexplored caves constitute a ‘non-renewable resource,’ thus there is a need for redefinition of ‘the unknown’ and ‘the new’ concepts in cave tourism practiced by dedicated cave tourists (far beyond the geographical sense). The result of this procedure might help meet the expectations of dedicated cave tourists toward their tourist experiences and the attractiveness of sites.</div><div>The explorations of dedicated cave tourists occur outside or on the fringes of tourism. To include them in the mainstream of broader tourism, it is necessary to find a balance between commercialization and the uniqueness and exclusivity of the product. The latter should provide satisfaction both in the area of physical well-being and the emotional sphere (sense of community, strengthening bonds).</div><div>The study revealed the literature gap in terms of existential authenticity and the recognition of aesthetic and bodily experiences in cave tourism outside of popular show caves.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":46931,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213078024000963","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Descent into the underground requires from explorers not only a high level of physical endurance, technical skills, and ability to use specialized equipment, but also psychological adaptation to severe cave conditions: the darkness, the coldness, and the unknown. The paper focuses on mental states and emotions that accompany cave descents at every stage of the tourist experience. The study examines cavers' tourist motivations as well as perceived benefits of this kind of physical activity. The research aims at the Polish caving community. The study indicates that participation in cave exploration for respondents undertaking cave challenges outside of regular tourism is generally the result of a combination of equally strong factors, rather than a single dominant motivation. The benefits of cave exploration are inwardly directed, those related to creating one’s external image were of marginal importance among survey respondents. A state of ‘focus and concentration’ accompanies cavers during almost the entire stay in cave what not lessen a sense of overall satisfaction, joy, and excitation. To some extent, anxiety, anger, and rarely fear, shape the cave tourist experience.
Management implications
The tourism product of any kinds of tourism should meet the expectations and needs of their participants. Dedicated speleotourists visiting sites outside mass tourism in popular show caves are leading by the complex of motivations typical for tourism as such. However, in the study analysed, the search for beauty and aesthetic impressions next to experiencing the unknown and novelty are explicitly significant motivators for cave exploration, even more important than looking for sport challenges and physical effort. This observation underlines cognitive and emotional meaning, not only sport character of cave exploration.
The research might suggest the general direction in preparation of the offer for dedicated cave tourists: they do not require the creation of new infrastructure (e.g. in terms of cave accessibility) or provision of new amenities, but possibilities of the improvement of technical skills, while enjoying the beauty of the caves, with maintaining a balance between commercialization and the sense of uniqueness and exclusivity of the product.
As pristine and unexplored caves constitute a ‘non-renewable resource,’ thus there is a need for redefinition of ‘the unknown’ and ‘the new’ concepts in cave tourism practiced by dedicated cave tourists (far beyond the geographical sense). The result of this procedure might help meet the expectations of dedicated cave tourists toward their tourist experiences and the attractiveness of sites.
The explorations of dedicated cave tourists occur outside or on the fringes of tourism. To include them in the mainstream of broader tourism, it is necessary to find a balance between commercialization and the uniqueness and exclusivity of the product. The latter should provide satisfaction both in the area of physical well-being and the emotional sphere (sense of community, strengthening bonds).
The study revealed the literature gap in terms of existential authenticity and the recognition of aesthetic and bodily experiences in cave tourism outside of popular show caves.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism offers a dedicated outlet for research relevant to social sciences and natural resources. The journal publishes peer reviewed original research on all aspects of outdoor recreation planning and management, covering the entire spectrum of settings from wilderness to urban outdoor recreation opportunities. It also focuses on new products and findings in nature based tourism and park management. JORT is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary journal, articles may focus on any aspect of theory, method, or concept of outdoor recreation research, planning or management, and interdisciplinary work is especially welcome, and may be of a theoretical and/or a case study nature. Depending on the topic of investigation, articles may be positioned within one academic discipline, or draw from several disciplines in an integrative manner, with overarching relevance to social sciences and natural resources. JORT is international in scope and attracts scholars from all reaches of the world to facilitate the exchange of ideas. As such, the journal enhances understanding of scientific knowledge, empirical results, and practitioners'' needs. Therefore in JORT each article is accompanied by an executive summary, written by the editors or authors, highlighting the planning and management relevant aspects of the article.