Conceptualizing the adventure tourist as a cross-boundary learner

In recent years, the adventure tourism sector has seen new travelers seeking self-transformation, learning, and an expanded worldview rather than risk and thrill. They have attracted attention for their contribution to the local economies. However, their motivation behind seeking such goals through adventure tourism remains unknown. Therefore, this study proposes a hypothesis explaining their transformation. An explanatory hypothesis is that adventure tourists possess the evaluation axis of cross-boundary learners who discover new selves through serendipitous encounters and events. Cross-boundary learning, a part of organizational learning, can be conceptually identified with planned happenstance theory (psychology) and effectuation theory (management) that locates self-transformation source in given non-cognitive abilities. Also, adventure tourists have an “ambivalent value” allowing them to simultaneously evaluate the exploitation of knowledge from the servicescape and the exploration of knowledge from the ethnoscape. This conceptual model thus bridges theory and practice for the development of the adventure tourism industry.

Management implications

The findings of this study can be summarized as follows.

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  Adventure tourists have ambivalent values of knowledge exploration and exploitation;

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  They become adventure tourists when they incidentally encounter ethnoscapes that are specific to and still rooted in the region of their travel destination; and

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  What makes them adventure tourists is a cross-boundary learning mindset, which can be confirmed by measuring their non-cognitive abilities.

Based on the above, the management implications are that adventure tourism operators should.

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  Focus their attention not only on the sophistication of their services, but also on preserving the ethnoscape of the business area; and

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  Plan for the generation of communities of practice in destinations that facilitate cross-boundary learning including knowledge exploration and exploitation by travelers.