The importance of outdoor recreation and nature based tourism to society has increased tremendously over the past few decades. Both are significantly influenced by societal, ecological and economic trends. Research and professional work in outdoor recreation draws from many academic disciplines such as forestry, geography, landscape planning, biology and conservation, sociology, psychology, sport science, tourism, economics and many others. At the same time, outdoor recreation and nature based tourism both are positioned at the fringe of respective disciplines. Consequently, publications on outdoor recreation topics are scattered over many journals and publications. With this new journal we would like to provide a joint forum and showcase the plurality of outdoor recreation research in a manner that is relevant to planning and management, and that is international in scope. On these opening pages of the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism (JORT), we would like to explain our vision for JORT, and structure the discussion around some major research and management challenges.