Review Article: 2021 Vol: 24 Issue: 1S
Roy Setiawan, Universitas Kristen Petra
Adventure tourism has become a lifestyle for most 'mature tourists.' This phenomenon has become attractive because they want to get experiences that can provide life lessons for them. The thing that must be considered by 'adventure experience tourists' is how they can achieve the concept of 'sustainable' or 'responsible tourism,' which is to prioritize 3P, 'Planet, People, and Prosperity.' Planets are concerned with understanding the 'code of ethics' and norms in universal and local contexts. In the context, people must uphold the desire that the activity has a positive influence, for example, mutual respect and understanding. Prosperity, in terms of microeconomics, affects the establishment of the host community. Including giving the meaning of goodness in their daily life.
Tourism, Adventure, Mature Tourist, Trail, Senior Generation
Adventure tourism is one of the fastest-growing tourism sectors, has high value for customers and supports the local economy (Beckmann, Martin, Petrak & Sproule, 2014) and is one of the essential market niches in the tourism industry (Williams & Soutar, 2009) and is a type of tourism that provides experiences that have risks, dangers and adrenaline, especially against opportunities for injury and loss, (Kane, 2004), A person's risk-taking behavior tends to change with personality and age, a person's tendency to take risks increases in adolescence, peaks in adulthood and decreases in old age, (Dohmen et al., 2011). A study conducted by Mata, Josef & Hertwig (2016) state that the courage to take risks tends to decrease as people age in most countries.
The tourism sector's development target in this field is targeted at wealthy, educated, and older adults (Cater, 2017). This is mainly related to the needs when adventure and money spent on the adventure are not small; at least two industries can be moved through this activity, namely the tourism industry and the motor manufacturing industry. The challenge for the industry is to precisely understand the potential and effective demand of the aging market to provide products that are commensurate with their needs (Patterson, 2006).
Trail adventure is a challenging activity that requires a more robust physique and the ability to minimize risks to anticipate obstacles that must exist because adventurers cannot fully control the challenges. This is not a problem for people who have a young age because young people have more physical strength. Even like challenges and trying to find sensations (Hallingberg, Van Goozen & Moore, 2016). The development target of the tourism sector in this field is targeted at wealthy, educated, and older adults (Cater, 2017); this is mainly related to the needs when adventure and money spent on the adventure are not small, there are at least two industries that can be moved through this activity, namely the tourism industry and the motor manufacture industry. The challenge for the industry is to precisely understand the potential and effective demand of the aging market to provide products that are commensurate with their needs (Patterson, 2006).
Community behavior in the context of adventure tourism has been carried out by several researchers by examining the relationship between adventure tourism and risks that can occur (Bentley & Page, 2008; Cater, 2006; Holm, Lugosi, Croes & Torres, 2017). Some other researchers link adventure with individual factors when doing adventure activities, such as emotional factors (Carnicelli-Filho, 2013), satisfaction and behavioral intention factors (Williams & Soutar, 2009), affective factors (Hagen & Boyes, 2016), stress and emotions, (Houge, Mackenzie & Kerr, 2013), freedom, (Kane, 2004), and fear factors (Carnicelli-Filho, Schwartz & Tahara, 2010), as well as emotional life factors, (Carnicelli-Filho, 2013). These studies have not discussed the specific types of adventure tourism, especially trail adventure.
If categorized based on the type of adventure, there are several studies, namely climbing and mountaineering (Berger & Greenspan, 2008), rafting and kayaking (Carnicelli-Filho et al., 2010), skydiving and parachuting (Allman, Mittelstaedt, Martin & Goldenberg, 2009), surfing and sailboarding, (Buckley, 2002), skiing and snowboarding, (Gilbert & Hudson, 2000), off-road driving, (Williams & Soutar, 2009). These studies do not focus on the older generation as the research object but internal and external motivations. Because it is important to explore with specific items.
Research on the behavior of people riding two-wheeled trail motorbikes with the aim of tourism, which is carried out on clay terrain, is still very little, and (Watson, Legg & Reeves, 2009). More specifically, in this study, not all ages were studied, but only the elderly. This is because parents' behavior is a paradox; on the one hand, this activity is an extreme sport, falling from a motorbike or injury is a sure thing to happen, a motorbike that is damaged from mild to burns or breaks in two is not a strange thing. However, it can be found from every adventure event that there are always people who are old but follow trail adventure activities. Ideally, older adults are no longer involved in challenging and risky activities and require a lot of energy. According to Chen, Chen, & Lin (2018), 33% of parents who ride motorbikes have accidents.
This incident, according to the author, is something unique. In old age, usually, some people enjoy the success they get, both economically and socially. Some of the tourist behavior in senior age adventure tourism can be seen from several other studies; for example, Patterson (2006) states that older generations who are more than 50 years old like traveling to create pleasure, relaxation, or visiting relatives, as well as traveling to visit sites (Historic). Anderson & Langmeyer (1982) stated that the older generation's tourism destinations are relaxation, visiting relatives, traveling to historic sites, joining tour packages, and spending time with friends and relatives, physical health, and fitness (Romsa & Blenman, 1989).
Apart from the paradox, if viewed from an economic perspective, it is people who have more income than the age below, when it is easier to find older people who have a dirt bike that is more expensive and branded than younger or better safety guard equipment than others. Besides, in doing trail adventure, people who are old in groups.
Based on these various backgrounds, this research question is why the older generation does trail adventure activities? The answer to this research question can at least answer the multiple contradictions of phenomena that occur and add to the literature's insight on the lack of research related to this matter.
Adventure Tourism and Risks
Consumer culture theory describes the dynamic relationship between consumers and the market place, in the process of consumers acquiring, consuming, and disposing of goods and services (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). The study of consumer behavior is quite extensive in various scopes. Consumption, in a broad context, can be experienced. Experience as a contextual product is marketed massively in the industry. One industry that seeks to offer experience is adventure tourism.
The term tourism is defined as the study of how a person leaves their usual habitat. The industry responds to their needs, and there are impacts that he and the industry have on the socio-cultural, economic, and environmental environment (Jafari, 1977). Adventure tourism is a development of mass tourism originally defined for travelers looking for sacred, meaningful, and romantic experiences (Erik, 1979). According to adventure, tourism is an activity that is uncertain, new, and uncomfortable for individuals who experience it (Fletcher, 2005). There is a shift in the meaning of adventure tourism developed from the recreational concept by adding risk. Risk is not only a loss value but is more recognized as an experience risk concept (Kane, 2004). This confirms that an element of adventure tourism is the experience of tourists on risky products.
Adventure tourism is more in outdoor settings, especially in nature. Weber (2001) explains that not all adventure tourism activities in nature contain risks; if it is done without risk, it is only called a walk, even though adventure in nature includes risks and uncertainties. The danger in this context is the risk for individuals who go on an adventure. Not all adventure tourism contains risks, mostly when related to each type of adventure; there are adventure activities that are challenging and soft activities.
Besides, the risk in adventure tourism is a paradox if it is associated with adventure service providers. Operators tend to protect from risks such as injuries that can cause medical and legal costs and bad publicity (Buckley, 2012). Of course, adventure service providers will avoid high risks for business continuity. Risks in the context of trail adventure tend to be large due to several factors such as the uncertainty of the track, the physical strength of the riders, the power of the motorbike, the type of soil (sandy soil is more comfortable to traverse than mixed water), weather and nature. Besides, for riders, if this activity is carried out periodically every week, the use of service provider operators will require expensive costs; they tend not to use trail adventure service providers. Therefore, risk reduction efforts are only carried out by the riders and their groups. However, risk alone is not sufficient to understand adventure behavior (Pain & Pain, 2005).
Adventure Tourism Trail
There are several terms used to understand tourism in the context of consumer experience in trail motor adventure. Two-wheel tourism and dirt bike tourism are both used in the same context. The concept of two-wheel tourism is part of drive tourism. The concept of drive tourism originates from the behavior of people who want to experience freedom and travel independently (Shih, 2006). Drive tourism can be defined as tourism that focuses on a trip from one area to another using your own or rented car and is involved in tourism activities during the trip (Prideaux, Wei, & Ruys, 2001). However, this tourism is not encouraged mainly because of the issue of the more extensive use of fossil fuels; this is different from the use of motorbikes, which are relatively less in fuel use, so that motorbike tourism is considered more sustainable, which allows it to be further promoted as part of tourism (Cater, 2017).
There are various types of adventure tourism, but in general, adventure tourism is categorized into two, namely challenging activities and soft activities, which are categorized based on challenges, risks and activities undertaken (Naidoo, Ramseook-Munhurrun, Seebaluck & Janvier, 2015).
East Java is one of the provinces in Indonesia which has natural tourism potential. The number of domestic tourists in 2016 increased by 6.02% compared to 2015 (Disbudpar East Java, 2018). Based on the age group, the number of tourists aged ≥ 54 years who visited East Java in 2014 to 2016 increased by 2%, and as much as 4.19% of tourists aged ≥ 55 years have the purpose of exercising (Barudin, Fitriyani & Indriati, 2016). This shows tourism potential in East Java, carried out by people who have old age who make tourist visits to exercise.
The critical factors in the existence of adventure tourism are humans and nature. Indonesia is an archipelago with high natural diversity; many areas have natural potential that can be used as tourist destinations that allow for adventure tourism development. Adventure tourism activities are found in several cities in East Java, one of which is quite a lot of enthusiasts is trail adventure. Trail adventure activities are mostly carried out in groups, usually 5 to 20 people who ride a trail bike for tours in forests and beaches. Some cities in East Java have tens or even hundreds of groups of riders who regularly tour by riding trail bikes in forests and beaches for recreational purposes. In fact, in several cities, this activity is supported by agencies such as the local government, Tentara National Indonesia, police, and other agencies that organize joint events with various trail groups to conduct tours.
There are various terms used in understanding the meaning of old people; the term "silent generation" is people born in 1925 to 1946 (Pennington-Gray & Lane, 2002), "new age elderly" is a sub-segment term to distinguish from the negative image of older age groups in the population, with a cut off of 55 years, (Schiffman & Sherman, 1991), the term "seniors," is used to define people who are 55 and older, (Shoemaker, 1989), the term "Baby boomers" are used for people born in 1946 to 1964, (Naidoo, Ramseook-Munhurrun, Seebaluck & Janvier, 2015). The difference in distinguishing older people is related to behavioral preferences that can occur; however, if observed, most of these terms have similarities regarding the cut-off used; almost all of them use age greater than 55 years. Even the current "baby boomer" generation is certainly over 55 years old. Therefore, the cut off in this study is that the understanding of old age is more than 55 years old.
Adventure tourism activities are found in several cities in East Java, one of which is quite a lot of enthusiasts is trail adventure. Trail adventure activities are mostly carried out in groups, usually 5 to 20 people who ride a trail bike for tours in forests and beaches. Some cities in East Java have tens or even hundreds of groups of riders who regularly tour by riding trail bikes in forests and beaches for recreational purposes
The experience that riders get when driving is more fantastic than drive tourism. Besides, drive tourism is more destination-oriented. This is different from two-wheel tourism, which puts more emphasis on the experience gained by tourists. This is because of consumer involvement when riding a motorbike is higher (Cater, 2017). High involvement makes riders feel more sensation and freedom of expression while still paying attention to skills, motor strength, and physicality.
According to Blackman & Haworth (2013), there is a relationship between riding a two-wheeled motorbike and adventure tourism. The attraction is that there are risks that can be caused; however, these risks can be controlled by the riders themselves. The important thing from this phenomenon is that for riders, the experience of driving to explore or adventure on a road that is in the winding nature is an activity that requires good driving skills, physically and mentally strong, and this is a challenge. The stronger, physically, and mentally, this will reduce the risks that can occur.