Who is a lost wilderness tourist?

Abstract

This article proposes a working definition for the term ‘lost wilderness tourist’ and uses this definition to examine lost wilderness tourist events through the lenses of tourism literature, lost person behaviour literature, search and rescue literature and wilderness tourists in Australia. A tool was developed using existing literature to recruit self-identifying lost wilderness tourists. First-person stories were collected through open ended, one-on-one qualitative interviews. Interview data were analysed using 3-step coding. The findings propose a definition for the term ‘lost wilderness tourist’, establish that lost wilderness tourist events can be categorised as ‘disorientated’ or ‘stuck’ and that these 2 meta categories can be further divided into subcategories. The findings offer insights into the lived experiences of lost wilderness tourists. These insights are useful for anyone with an interest in lost wilderness events and the safety of people in Australia’s wilderness areas.