ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the travel and tourism sector more than any previous natural or human-caused event. Recognizing the pandemic as an opportunity for self-reflection, calls to action implore the sector to reimagine, reevaluate, and restructure tourism to be more sustainable, balanced, and equitable. Meanwhile, COVID-19 will exacerbate the public health and environmental risks of tourism, widening unjust health disparities between tourists and locals. In response, we offer a novel framework centering public health and community consent as a model for future research and programming in tourism.
ABSTRACT
Unprecedented mobility restrictions due to COVID-19 have frozen the adventure travel and tourism industry. These restrictions have forced many to embrace 'hyperlocal' approaches to adventure and provided an opportunity to reimagine our adventure travel philosophies and practices. Despite claims that traditional adventure travel could address some of the "world's most pressing challenges", it has largely failed to realize its potential to provide a range of social, economic, and environmental benefits. Conversely, microadventure, which espouses adventures in nearby nature that are low-carbon and human-scaled, is an enticing alternative for both current and post-pandemic conditions. This essay first critiques pre-pandemic adventure travel and describes the hazards of this approach in age of COVID-19. It then explores creative 'lockdown' microadventures;envisions what post-pandemic adventure may look like;and explains why we not only need to embrace microadventures in a post-pandemic world, but also why we may prefer them to traditional adventure travel.