Selling adventure tourism: a distribution channels perspective by Christian Schott - Essay Example

The purpose of the review is to highlight the research findings of the author in the adventure tourism sector and to analyze the research approaches that have been adopted.This will be achieved by introducing the main aim of the paper in the first section, which will be followed by the purpose of the study. Research methodologies and main findings of the paper shall be discussed in the later sections. The review will be concluded with a personal reflection of the paper and the implications of the research findings in the field of tourism, business and marketing.

The field of tourism has evolved and a new domain has been acknowledged- adventure tourism. This study discusses the pace with which the respective field is gaining fame and the structure of its distribution channels. The field of adventure tourism is a new field in the academic domain, hence has not caught attention of many researchers as yet. This study was conducted to contribute in the respective field and facilitate a greater degree of knowledge about the developing field of tourism. The main purpose of the research is to analyze the different factors that play a role in the decision process of the consumer to choose a certain distribution channel.

The differences and similarities between different sectors of tourism have also been analyzed in the paper. The study has been focused on the adventure tourism field of Queenstown in New Zealand. . The author has been successful in explaining the basic terms like soft adventure (low risk trips), hard adventure (high risk trips) and distribution (direct or indirect link between the consumer and the tourism services producer). Before leading to the discussion about the distribution channels in adventure tourism, the author presents the research finding that the distribution channels of culture and heritage in New Zealand are structured in larger operating units, whereas smaller organizations have adopted ad hoc strategies.

This finding is useful to facilitate a comparison among different types of tourism distribution channels. Then, the author discusses the structure of the distribution channels in adventure tourism. The research points out that family and friends, brochures and internet are the main sources of information in the field of adventure tourism, like any other domain. The methodology that has been adopted for the research is of qualitative in nature. Comparative, integrated and multi-stage approach is adopted to compare various sectors of tourism.

Detailed interviews were held with the concerned management executives of companies offering adventure tourism in Queenstown, from November to December 2003. 30 companies were contacted to obtain information during the research process. As stated earlier, the size of the business has an effect on the extent of being structured, therefore the number of employees was chosen as the variable to denote the size of the company. The findings concluded that the small companies adopt short distribution chains while medium and large companies make use of extensive distribution strategies and channels that are differentiated with respect to the different geographical status;