In recent decades, New Zealand has received much attention in its development of the adventure tourism niche. Celebrating non-conventional tourist expectations counter to those of mass tourists, adventure tourism is combination of nature, sport and outdoor recreation.
It is recognized that the risk-seeking nature incorporates real physical danger as a part of this tourist activity. Nevertheless, the current industry perspective is that the responsibility for safety is of commercial tour operators - the client's outdoor experience must be facilitated with the minimum amount of risk. Psychological motivations of risk-seeking tourists and New Zealand's existing standards of safety management both play a vital part in cementing this mountainous subtropical nation as "the world's leading adrenaline hotspot".
