Extreme tourism

The term extreme tourism is not easily described as a typology. Instead, it is better understood as suite of tourist activities, motivations, and industry practices that overlap with existing typologies, motivations, and practices, specifically occupying the outer edges of these. Often the "extreme" of extreme tourism refers to the location of that tourism, in some wilderness areas, for example, but also depends upon how well supported the tourist is in this environment by the industry. This level of support determines how extreme the activity is and how much the environment poses a risk to the tourist who, as a consequence, is or is not on the extreme. Some locations simply are extreme in the sense that there is very little infrastructure or industry support possible. These tend to be natural extremes like climate, isolation, or very wild landscapes, but they can also be cultural landscapes that offer intense and disorienting experiences.