Stress and emotions at work: An adventure tourism guide's experiences

Little research has identified issues faced by tour guiding professionals and investigations of tour guide experiences have been neglected in favour of tourist experience and behaviour studies. Even less research has focused on adventure guiding experiences and potential sources of stress and emotions in this context. Studies that have investigated adventure guide experiences generally focused on guide–client interactions and sociological accounts of these experiences. Due to these gaps in the literature, and the recognised potential of psychological theories to enhance studies of stress and emotions in tourism settings, this study explored stress and emotions resulting from employer–guide interactions in an adventure tourism context from a psychological perspective. Longitudinal autoethnographical data was recorded during a river guiding season in South America. A reversal theory framework guided data analyses of key motivational states, sources of stress, and resulting emotions. Analyses identified potential transactional sources of stress and negative emotions for adventure tourism guides, and motivational states associated with stress and emotional outcomes in the employer–guide relationship. Results are discussed in relation to psychological theory and stress and coping research. Recommendations for practice, that could alleviate stressful experiences between employers and guides, are also discussed.

► Applies psychological theory (reversal theory) to understand adventure guiding experiences.
► Unique autoethnographical account of adventure tourism guiding experiences.
► Identifies sources of stress and emotions experienced in the employer–guide relationship.
► Recommends how to reduce stress for adventure guides.
► Discusses future directions regarding psychological research in tourism.