Sources of challenge for adventure tourists: Scale development and validation

•Seven challenge sources of adventure tourists were identified.•Intrapersonal challenge: insufficiency of adventure tourists' resources.•Interpersonal challenge: relationships with partners; partners' ability; competition.•Activity challenge: difficulty of the activity; equipment problem.•Environment challenge: the uncertainty of the environment.

One of the motives for tourists to pursue adventure activities is challenge. This research aimed to conceptualize the sources of challenge and to develop a relevant scale. First, in-depth interviews and content analysis were conducted in order to generate the initial items. Second, an exploratory factor analysis was performed by investigating 328 mountaineers. Seven factors were identified: the uncertainty of the environment; insufficiency of participants' resources; relationships with partners; difficulty of the activity; ability of the partners; equipment; and a sense of competition. Third, confirmative factor analysis was employed in order to investigate 312 subjects on-site. The seven factors outlined above were verified. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.