Adventure Tourism offers also exciting experiences that are physical demanding. Adventure travel is personal accomplishment through the thrills of dominating dangerous environments. White-water rafting, ocean canoeing, horse riding, free climbing, hicking and trekking through natural areas are some examples. Adventure Tourism is linked to an intact nature with a minimum of civilization influences. The search is for personal redemption through challenge and sacrifice, and nature is the backdrop to an intensely personal experience. Nature dictates the rules and provides a stage for the human play. Typically, it is carried out in remote places renowned for their natural beauty and physical attributies.
Most pure adventure activities appeal to the animal instinct by trespassing the limits of muscular strength and survival. Active tourism, has a much more intellectual focus, since it follows the idea that we are not primitive animals that strive to compete only, but that our intelligence is what makes us so special in nature.
Active Tourism is a new travelling philosophy that combines adventure, ecotourism and cultural aspects of a discovery tour. Active Tourism is low-impact, ecological, socially compatible and high quality. Active Tourism aims to combine recreation, education and bring benefits to both the tourist as well to the visited land. Active Tourism has many aspects in common with ecotourism and nature tourism and it also integrates some activities of action and adventure tourism. Additionally it also includes some aspects of cultural tours and academic and scientific expeditions.
There are many aspects in common between all this forms of travelling, but there are also important differences which need detailed explanation (see below).