the behavioural characteristics of sofi and hard adventurers have been examined in this section. the heterogeneous nature of adventure tourism. for the purose also been explored using the soft-hard adventure continuum. for the purpose of classifying adventure tourism, this continuum has proved useved useful. however asnoted earlier, people's perceptions of adventure vary. whilst the leisure and tourism industries may classify the experience of a hot air balloon ride as soft adventure, on the basis that it requires no skills or experience , a person doing this for the first time and who is of a nervous disposition would probably feel sheer panic. from this person's point of view the whole experience may feel like a hard adventure. To conclude section, it seems apparent that people are driven to participate in different hard and soft adventures by several factors; experience, competence, skill and personality.