Rush as a key motivation in skilled adventure tourism: Resolving the risk recreation paradox

At least 14 different motivations for adventure tourism and recreation, some internal and some external, have been identified in ∼50 previous studies. Skilled adventure practitioners refer to ineffable experiences, comprehensible only to other participants and containing a strong emotional component. These are also reflected in the popular literature of adventure tourism. This contribution draws on >2000 person-days of ethnographic and autoethnographic experience to formalise this particular category of experience as rush. To the practitioner, rush is a single tangible experience. To the analyst, it may be seen as the simultaneous experience of flow and thrill. Experiences which provide rush are often risky, but it is rush rather than risk which provides the attraction. Rush is addictive and never guaranteed, but the chance of rush is sufficient motivation to buy adventure tours.

► Rush is a psychophysiological state experienced by skilled adventure recreationists.
► Participants say it is indescribable, but it can be analysed as rush = thrill + flow.
► Both operators and clients of high-skill adventure tours want rush rather than risk.