4. NATURAL RESOURCES
Adventure travelers want untrammeled and well-managed natural resources. Destinations with unusual or rare natural resources, which are well-managed and not exploited, will earn high praise from adventure travelers and sustained market competitiveness. The Natural Resources Pillar is made up of four indicators and an expert opinion question:
From the World Resources Institute: 1. Urban Concentration 2. Population Density
From CIA World Factbook: 1. Kilometers of coastline 2. Ratio of coast to total area
Additionally, in 2009 the ATDI added a survey question that asked panelists
to rate their perception “regarding the variety of natural resources at the destination” on a Likert scale of -3 (very poor) to +3 (very good).
Rationale: Places with more unpopulated space are likely to have greater natural resources for adventure tourism. When the ATDI is applied diagnostically, emphasis is placed on discovering and valuing natural resources with fresh eyes that local populations may have overlooked as having a market value in the adventure tourism context.
One provision was made to accommodate the vast amount of coastline that Canada has, and it was rated at 5,500 instead of its actual score, in order to have scores comparable with the rest of the world.