Adventure tourism and adventure sports injury:
The New Zealand experience
Tim A. Bentleya,_, Stephen J. Pageb, Keith A. Mackya
aDepartment of Management and
International Business, Massey University at Albany, Private Bag 102904 NSMC,
Auckland, New Zealand
bDepartment of Marketing,
University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland FK99 4LA, UK
Received 24 January 2006; accepted 23 October 2006
Abstract
The primary aims of this study were to establish a client injury
baseline for the New Zealand adventure tourism and adventure sport sector, and
to examine patterns and trends in claims for injury during participation in
adventure activities. Content analysis of narrative text data for compensated
injuries occurring in a place for recreation and sport over a 12-month period
produced over 15,000 cases involving adventure tourism and adventure sport. As
found in previous studies in New Zealand, highest claim counts were observed
for activities that are often undertaken independently, rather than
commercially. Horse riding, tramping, surfing and mountain biking were found to
have highest claim counts, while hang gliding/paragliding/parasailing and jet
boating injuries had highest claim costs, suggesting greatest injury severity.
Highest claim incidence was observed for horse riding, with female claimants over-represented
for this activity. Younger male claimants comprised the largest proportion of
adventure injuries, and falls were the most common injury mechanism.r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All
rights reserved.
Keywords: Adventure tourism; Adventure sport;
Unintentional injury; Injury compensation claims; Injury epidemiology
1.
Introduction
Adventure tourism is a rapidly
expanding sector of the tourism industry internationally. New Zealand is
internationally recognised as a country where adventure tourism and adventure
sports are undertaken by a large proportion of the resident and visitor
population. While the risks associated with adventure tourism and adventure sport
activity are increasingly highlighted in media reports of fatalities and
serious injuries to overseas and domestic recreationalists in New Zealand and
elsewhere (Wilks and Atherton, 1994), relatively little research has been conducted in this area. One
important reason for the lack of serious interest in this phenomena by
researchers, governments and the tourism industry, is that the extent of the tourism
health and safety problem is unknown in most countries due to the absence of
injury surveillance and/or any one body reliably collating and reporting
national or industry injury statistics.
Millington et al. (2001, p. 67) define adventure travel as ‘a leisure activity that takes place in
an unusual, exotic, remote or wilderness destination. It tends to be associated
with high levels of activity by the participant, most of it outdoors. Adventure
travellers expect to experience various levels of risk, excitement and
tranquillity, and be personally tested. In particular they are explorers of
unspoilt, exotic parts of the planet and also seek personal challenges’. From
this definition it is apparent that the adventure recreationalist faces a
variety of potential risk factors, including interacting factors associated
with unfamiliar environments, remote locations, unfamiliar activities, risk taking,
and challenge. Recent work by these and other authors (Ryan, 2003; Wilks
and Davis, 2000) has begun to explore the extent
and nature of these risks and the ability of the adventure tourism sector to
control injury risk to the clients of their activities through risk management
(see Swarbrooke et al. (2003) for a
good account of approaches to risk
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doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2006.10.007
_Corresponding author. Tel.: +649 41 40800x9578;
fax: +649
441 8109.
E-mail address: t.a.bentley@masse.ac.nz
(T.A. Bentley).
management in adventure tourism).
Early studies into adventure tourism safety in New Zealand provided evidence
that activities such as white water rafting, scenic flights and mountain
recreation, present significant risk of injury and loss of life to clients (Greenaway, 1996; Hall and McArthur, 1991; Johnson, 1989; McLaughlan, 1995; Page and Meyer, 1996). Building
upon this work, Bentley et al. (2001a), from an analysis of overseas visitor hospitalization data in New
Zealand for the 15-yr period, 1982–1996, identified 1027 overseas visitor
hospitalisations where the injury was the result of adventure tourism and
adventure sport activity. This figure represented 17% of all overseas visitor
injuries and 22% of fatalities during this period, and an injury-incidence rate
of approximately 8 hospitalised injuries/100,000 overseas visitors (this may be
compared to a motor vehicle traffic accident rate of approximately 12 hospitalised
injuries/100,000 visitors). Recreationalists engaged in unguided, independent
adventure activities, notably skiing and mountaineering, were most frequently injured
or killed as a result of their activity, while highest counts of commercial
adventure tourism injuries were observed for horse riding and cycling. Two
surveys of New Zealand adventure tourism operators carried out during the past
6 yr have produced data that support the findings of the hospitalisations study
outlined above as they relate to the commercial sector, with horse riding and
mountain biking activities having relatively large injury counts and incidence
rates (Bentley et al., 2001b; Bentley and Page, 2006). These
studies indicated that slips, trips and falls on the level and falls from a
height were the major injury mechanisms for adventure activities, while
operators identified a range of risk factors for adventure tourism injuries,
including unfamiliar wilderness and marine environments and underfoot hazards
such as slippery walking conditions. The present study builds on this earlier
research, and in particular seeks to establish up-to-date client injury
baseline data for New Zealand adventure tourism and adventure sport, and to
examine patterns and trends in claims for injury during participation in
adventure activities. The data will provide a platform for further more
detailed studies examining key risk factors for highrisk activity sectors and
environments, and the risk management practices of adventure tourism operators.
2.
Methodology
Compensation claims data for
adventure tourism and adventure sport-related injuries to adult (16 yr and
over) New Zealand residents occurring during the 12-month period, July 2003–June
2004, were extracted from the Accident Compensation Corporation’s (ACC)
database for injuries occurring at a place for sport or recreation. The initial
dataset of approximately 40,000 cases was contained in a single Microsoft Excel
data file. The involvement or otherwise of adventure and recreational tourism
activity was determined by content analysis of the one-line narrative
descriptions of incident circumstances provided for each case, with
non-adventure cases removed from the dataset, and adventure activities coded
under one of 27 categories of adventure tourism/sports. Unfortunately, many
cases contained insufficient information in the narrative to determine
adventure involvement, stating only that the claimant had ‘fallen off a rock’,
was ‘walking along a beach’ or ‘was riding my bike’ for example, meaning many
tramping, mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain biking and marine activity
cases may have been omitted from the analysis erroneously. It should be noted,
therefore, that the final dataset of 15,648 cases is likely to underestimate
the total number of compensated adventure and recreation-related injuries
during the period of the analysis. For each of these cases the following
variables were available for analysis: age, gender, ethnicity of the claimant;
region where the incident occurred; month of incident; adventure activity;
injury initiating event; body part injured; injury diagnosis, and cost of
claim. The majority of these variables were categorical in nature, the exceptions
being age and cost of claim, for which interval and ordinal (age and cost
groups) variables were provided. Once coded, the data were transferred from
Excel to SPPS for Windows V.13. Descriptive analyses were undertaken for each
of the variables, including cross-tabulation, and non-parametric inferential
statistics (including Chi-Square and Kruskal–Wallis tests) applied where
differences and associations between categories and variables were examined. Claim
incident rates were calculated where suitable participation and population data
were available. Denominator data were 2005 population figures provided by Statistics
New Zealand and New Zealand adult participation in sport and active leisure, as
derived by Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) from sample surveys conducted
during 2000. It is noted, therefore, that participation data are only
indicative of New Zealander participation in adventure tourism and adventure
sports activities.
3. Results
3.1. Demographic distribution
A total of 15,648 adventure tourism and adventure sports cases
were identified from the database. Claimants had a mean age of 36.4 yr (SD ¼ 14). Table
1 shows the distribution of claimants by age group and
median and total costs of claims (as best available proxy for injury severity)
for each age range. The age groups differed significantly in the number of claims
for adventure tourism and adventure sport injuries (w2(6) ¼ 5904.8, p ¼ 0.000). The largest proportion of claims was incurred by claimants
in the 21–40 age range whose claims comprised 50% of all claims. However, claims
were most expensive, and therefore injuries potentially most severe, in the
60-plus age range. A Kruskal–Wallis test using theMonte Carlo method showed that
the cost of claims for adventure tourism and sports injuries is related to the
age of the claimant (H(6) ¼ 94.9, p ¼ 0.000).
As Table 1 indicates, the
median cost of claims increases through to the 41–50 age group, plateaus and then
increases again for the 62–70 and 470 age groups. Jonckheere’s test supports this observed trend in
the data of claims costs increasing with claimant age (Z ¼ 9.5, p ¼ 0.000). As expected, males (63.3%)
made significantly more claims than females (36.7%) (w2(1) ¼ 1106.9, p ¼ 0.000), although gender of claimant distributions varied
considerably across the various activities (see Section 3.2 below). The claim
rate for male claimants was 491.1/100,000 people, compared to a rate of 275.8
for females. The median cost of claims was lower for male (NZ$93.7) than for
female (NZ$106.4) claimants. Male and female claimants had almost identical
mean ages (males—36.4; females—36.2). Females in the youngest (16–20) and
oldest (61–70 and 470) age groups
were responsible for a relatively high proportion of claims, incurring at least
40% of adventure injuries in these age ranges. Claimants were predominantly New
Zealand European (76%), while just 6% of claimants were New Zealand Maori, 1.4%
Asian and 1% Pacific Islanders.
3.2. Distribution of claims and cost by activity
Table 2 shows the major activity categories for adventure tourism and
adventure sports injuries in New Zealand for the period of the analysis, along
with an analysis of claims costs by activity. Land-based activities comprised
59% of all cases, 38% involved water-borne activities and just 1% cases were aviation
based. More than half of all adventure injuries were incurred during
participation in just 4 activities: horse riding, tramping, mountain biking and
surfing. Horse riding had notably higher claim incidence rates than for other
activities where incidence rates could be calculated, being almost two-times
greater than that for mountain biking. Relatively low incidence rates were
found for skiing and fishing, two of the most popular New Zealand recreational
activities. A Kruskal–Wallis test using the Monte Carlo method showed that the
cost of claims was related to the activity of the claimant (H(24) ¼ 298.7, p ¼ 0.000). Hang gliding paragliding/parasailing participants incurred
notably greater claims costs, with some 36.1% of claims for this activity
resulting in compensation over NZ$1000, compared to just 10% of cases across
all activities. Relatively low costs of claims were associated with diving,
bungee jumping and jet boating activities. Male claimants had notably more
claims for the majority of activities, the major exception being horse riding
(78.5% of claimants were female). A relatively even distribution of claims by
gender was found for white water rafting, tramping, bungee jumping, abseiling,
jet boating, and skiing. Male claimants most notably dominated claims for hunting
(92.6% of claims), hang gliding/paragliding/parasailing (89.4%), fishing
(84.5%), surfing (82.7%), mountain biking (80.7%), and snowboarding (72.6%). A
number of activities had notably lower mean age of injured participant,
including snowboarding (mean age ¼ 24.9 yr, compared to an overall mean age of 36.4), wakeboarding
(28 yr) and bungee jumping (29.1 yr). Older claimants tended to be injured
while fishing (46 yr), tramping (44 yr), jet boating (44 yr) and hang gliding (42
yr). Adventure tourism and adventure sport injuries clustered around known
adventure tourism regions and population centres. Thus, 16% of adventure
tourismrelated injuries occurred in the Auckland area, 13% in Canterbury, 13%
in the Waikato and 10% in the Bay of Plenty. A further 9% of cases were from
Otago, the region within which the ‘world capital for adventure tourism’, Queenstown,
is situated. Activities tended to group in specific regional areas of New
Zealand, with mountain biking injuries most frequently incurred in the Central North
Island adventure centres such as Rotorua and in the Sound Island adventure
capital of Queenstown. Similarly, snow sport injuries were predominantly based
around the Southern Alps and Central North Island regions. The temporal
distribution of claims reflected the seasonal nature of New Zealand adventure
tourism and sports, with some 60% of injuries incurred during the summer
months, December–April. Fig. 1 shows the distribution of the top four frequency activities by
month of injury occurrence. The distribution of activities across the summer
season is highlighted, while surfing injuries occur in significant quantities
during the January holiday period.
3.3. Mechanism of injury and injury type
The large majority of adventure
tourism injuries resulted from falls, including overbalancing, slipping, and
tripping (71%), often from a height and
while moving at speed. The activities for which falls were most common included
horse riding, mountain biking, snowboarding and tramping. Other categories of
injury mechanism included lifting and/or carrying (7%) and colliding with
something (4%). Lifting and carrying injuries most frequently occurred during
kayaking, tramping, surfing, and waterskiing. Many cases involved the claimant
being injured while lifting or moving a pack or piece of equipment, often a
kayak. The most frequently injured body parts for adventure tourism and
adventure sports claims were the shoulder (11%), knee (10%), lower back/spine
(10%) and ankle (7%). Unsurprisingly, injuries to multiple locations resulted in
largest compensation amounts, reflecting greatest injury severity. Other
high-cost injuries were to the neck/ vertebrae, head, and eye. Major body part
injury areas for the 4 highest frequency activities are shown in Fig. 2. Each of the top four activities
have distinct injury patterns, with horse-riding claimants suffering injuries
to the lower back and spine, while trampers most frequently injured the ankle
and knee. Mountain biking injuries were most commonly to the shoulder, and
surfing injuries were concentrated on the upper limb, and in particular the
neck and shoulder. Surfers also received a relatively large proportion of
injuries to the face, presumably through being struck by surf boards or dumped
on the seabed by a wave. The major type of injury diagnosis was soft-tissue
injury (stains and sprains), comprising 58.7% of cases. Soft-tissue injuries
were most frequently located at the lower limb (mainly the knee and ankle),
upper limb (mainly the shoulder and neck) and lower back. Fractures and dislocations,
suggesting a more severe injury outcome, were the injury type in 13% of cases,
and were most frequently located at the upper limb, specifically shoulder, hand
wrist, and fingers. A further 13% of cases involved lacerations.
4.
Discussion and conclusions
These findings indicate a
significant adventure tourism and adventure sport problem in New Zealand in
terms of participant injury, with more than 15,000 domestic adventure injury
cases being serious enough to require compensation. This figure underestimates
the true quantity of injuries as many cases would not have been captured by ACC’s
sport and recreation database for various reasons and many that were included
on the database had insufficient information from which to code them as involving
adventure activity. Moreover, these figures exclude the large number of injuries
involving overseas visitors to New Zealand each year (Bentley et al., 2001a). Adventure
tourism and adventure sport-related claims comprised a total financial burden
of over $15 million over the 1-yr period of the analysis. Some activity
sectors, notably hang gliding, paragliding, and parasailing, were associated
with notably higher compensation costs, suggesting injuries resulting from
these activities tend to be very serious events.
As found in previous studies by these authors (Bentley et al., 2001a, c; Bentley and Page, 2006), adventure
activities that are predominantly undertaken independently, rather than
commercially, were associated with a large proportion of incidents, in
particular tramping, surfing, mountaineering, mountain biking, fishing, and
waterskiing. Mountaineering and tramping has also been associated with relatively
large numbers of fatalities involving overseas visitors who may be unfamiliar
with New Zealand terrain and changeable weather conditions (Bentley et al., 2001c). This suggests
the need for improved information and safety messages for recreationalists,
ideally situated at adventure locations and places where people participating
in these activities travel and are accommodated. Adventure activities that are
not currently covered by regulation or codes of practice, including mountain
biking and horse riding, featured most frequently in injury compensation data,
had highest incidence rates (where participation data could be estimated) and
often resulted in relatively serious injury. These findings suggest the need
for some level of regulatory intervention in the commercial sector for these
activities (Northey, 2003), with the aim of producing improved risk management practice
among operators, along with measures to improve the safety of individual
recreationalists participating in these activities. The large number of claims
for injuries during activities that are usually offered commercially is also of
concern. These include horse riding, white water rafting, quad biking, and jet
boating; activities that have been associated with fatalities involving
overseas visitors and New Zealand residents in recent years (Bentley et al., 2001c). Diving, an activity
that is commonly led by commercial organisations, resulted in particularly high
numbers of claims. Further research will examine the risk management activities
of operators in these activity sectors.
Falls were found to be the major
injury mechanism in both studies, suggesting attention of injury prevention efforts
should focus on risk factors for slips, trips, and falls, and falls from a
height as they relate to each activity sector. For example, tramping operators
should focus on underfoot conditions on their walking tracks and the footwear used
by their clients. Activities undertaken at speed, including mountain biking and
skiing, should also consider secondary safety issues in the design of personal
protective equipment that may reduce injuries at the most vulnerable body
areas. Indeed, specific areas of injury were identified for some high-injury
activities, including the shoulder for mountain biking and surfing, knee and
ankle injuries for tramping and mountaineering, and the lower back for horse
riding. This information could be used in the development of interventions,
such as personal protective equipment, to reduce the extent of injury for these
activities. Claims were incurred in greatest number and incidence by male
participants. Injury prevention messages and other interventions to reduce
adventure injury risk should focus on younger male participants of activities
such as mountain biking, surfing, and snowboarding, with the exception being
horse riding, for which female participants dominate (Northey, 2003). Older males should be
the target of messages and other interventions relating to activities such as
fishing, tramping, and hang gliding. Limitations of the findings of the data
analysis for adventure tourism and adventure sport-related claims include the
inability to identify a large number of cases that may have been adventure
related from the available data. The methodology employed in the selection of
cases, however, ensured cases where the involvement of adventure activity could
not be clearly determined were not included in the dataset for analysis. A
further problem was the absence of reliable denominator data from which to
determine incidence rates for the entire range of adventure activities considered
in the study. Despite these shortcomings, the data provides a useful baseline
picture of the adventure tourism and sport injury situation in New Zealand. Future
research and intervention will focus on activities identified here and in
earlier research as carrying greatest client injury risk in terms of injury
counts and incidence rates, including horse riding, tramping, surfing,
kayaking, diving, and mountain biking. In addition, activities where injury
severity appears to be greatest, notably hang gliding, paragliding, parasailing,
and jet boating, need to be addressed through research. Research will also
examine in detail the problem of falls in adventure recreation. In terms of
commercial adventure tourism management, it is crucial to gather an improved
understanding of operators’ risk management practices and to develop best
practice standards for improving client safety across the New Zealand adventure
tourism and adventure sport industry.
Acknowledgement
This study was completed with the assistance of the Accident Compensation
Corporation (ACC) who provided the raw data. Views and conclusions in this
article are those of the authors and may not reflect those of ACC.
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