An exploration of motivations among scuba divers in north central Florida

Abstract

There has been a boom in the adventure travel market as 98 million adults had taken an adventure vacation between 1992 and 1997, which includes soft adventure vacations (e.g., camping, hiking, biking, bird-or-animal-watching, horseback riding, sailing, skiing), and hard adventure vacations (e.g., mountain biking, whitewater rafting/kayaking, scuba diving, rock climbing, snowboarding, skydiving) (Travel Industry Association, 1998). Approximately 46% of the population took soft adventures, 16% took hard adventures and 13% took both (Research Alert, 1998). Hard adventure activities have been referred to as "risk recreation activities" which differs from traditional soft adventure activities because of the presence of significant components of risk (may be life-threatening), danger and uncertainty, which could be either perceived or real (Ewert, 1994). Additionally, risk recreation activities includes the following characteristics: 1) involvement with a natural environment, 2) elements of risk and, danger, 3) uncertain outcome, and 4) influenced by the participant or circumstance (Ewert, 2001).

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Meyer, Louisa A.; Thapa, Brijesh; Pennington-Gray, Lori. 2003. An exploration of motivations among scuba divers in north central Florida. In: Schuster, Rudy, comp., ed. Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-302. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 292-295