The role of nature on horse trail rides: tourist experience expectations

Abstract

Horse tourism is an important component of the tourism industry that has been relatively neglected by researchers. An important segment of this part of the industry is trail rides. Taking place in outdoor environments, nature constitutes an essential element of the trail ride experience. This explorative paper examines what tourists expect to experience in relation to nature on a trail ride in Otago, New Zealand. It is based on data collected from 26 tourists via semi-structured interviews that were conducted prior to the tourists undertaking a horse trail ride. The results of this study reaffirm the importance of nature in the expectations of horse trail ride tourists. Moving beyond this, the results demonstrate the importance of concepts of pristine, beautiful, and different nature in the expectations of the tourists. The results also show the central role nature places in the expectations of tourists that are focused on notions of romanticism, nostalgia, relaxation and escapism. The results of this study have implications for academic and tourism industry understandings of tourist expectations related to nature. They also raise questions about how views of nature may differ depending on the mode of transportation tourists choose to use when experiencing it.