Guides are the backbone of the adventure tourism industry. Employers need competent, qualified guides who can provide adequate care and safety for their clients. Many growing companies in the adventure tourism industry are looking for employees who are qualified in adventure sport activities and who possess effective interpersonal, hospitality, and organizational and business skills. The reality is that such guides are still hard to find!
Most of the past and present adventure tourism businesses have been started by these "lifestyle" operators, and we are just now seeing tourism development investors beginning to actively seek out viable operations within adventure travel tourism. This trend will in turn create new issues to address in the integration of operator and investor.