Motorcycle tourism and its relationship with adventure tourism and ecotourism

Abstract:

The relationship between the motorcyclist with the trip and the destination, within a touristic focus, is still a recent but expanding area of study in the academic environment, and worldwide. This research investigates the universe of behavior, activities and perceptions of motorcycle riders from the perspective of adventure tourism and ecotourism. Methodologically it adopts an inductive orientation with a qualitative approach at an exploratory level from the state of the art, followed by a quantitative approach at a descriptive level, based on primary data obtained, with non-probability purposive sampling among motorcycle riders from different countries. The results present, firstly, a bibliographical discussion of the conceptual background to the relationship between motorcycling and motorcycle tourism, followed by an analysis of the profile, motivations, activities and behavior of 428 motorcycle drivers in regard to their trips and destinations. The adoption of adventure tourism and ecotourism as reference models for analysis enabled us to insert motorcycle tourism, in an unprecedented way, within the scope of tourism research in Brazil, as well as providing an initial foray, for its insertion in the tourist segmentation.

Keywords:
Motorcycle tourism; Adventure Tourism; Ecotourism