The boundaries between adventurous activities and tourism are blurring as evidenced in the diffuse usage of concepts, such as, wilderness, safari, nature guiding, adventurous and adventure with regard to tourism. This blurring is also reflected in research associated with adventure tourism. In our paper, we ask, how is adventure tourism defined and categorized in tourism and associated literature? Our study involved a literature review, including development of a systematic methodology for creating a comprehensive list of articles. The first amount of references that resulted from the literature review totalled 2119. This number highlights that adventure tourism has been widely studied. However, those studies have been dispersed among different disciplines and journals. Based on our literature review, we argue that the term ‘adventure tourism’ as used in tourism research is more like a category than an analytical concept. Hence, we conclude that a reconceptualization of adventure tourism is required.

Nature contacts are recognized as positively contributing to humans’ health and well-being. Although there have been projects to green daycare or schoolyards, yard greening and microbial biodiversity have never been studied simultaneously. We asked whether simultaneously increasing biodiversity exposure and greening urban daycare yards affects 3–5 years-old children’s physical activity and play, their environmental relationships, and their perceived well-being. For transforming six daycare yards in Finland, we used a forest floor with high biodiversity, sod, peat blocks, and planters for vegetable and flower growing. We used qualitative interview and survey-based data collected from the daycare personnel and parents to analyze how green yards encourage children’s engagement with their everyday life-worlds. We identified the functional possibilities provided by the yards and the dynamic aspects related to the greening. Green, biodiverse yards were considered safe, and inspired children’s play, diversified their activities, and increased physical activity. The greenery offered embodied experiences of nature and provided the children with multi-sensory exploration and diverse learning situations. The dynamic and emotional ways of engaging with the natural environment increased their well-being. The activities related to caring for the yards and exploring them promoted the development of environmental relationships. The results can be used for designing health-enhancing yards

This study examines the hitherto under-explored relationships between weather, human action and the natural environment from a practice-based perspective. Using an ethnographic study on wilderness guiding in Finnish Lapland, the article first examines the integral role of weather when conceptualizing tourist activities taking place outdoors. The authors identify three types of weather-related practices: anticipating and coping with the weather, as well as discursive practices related to weather. They therefore demonstrate how weather manipulates human practices by narrowing down or extending the possibilities for outdoor activities. Second, by materializing weather, the study provides a more nuanced understanding of the diverse ways in which weather – a material entity in itself – is involved in the enactment of various socio-material practices; here the authors make the case for a specific repertoire of weather-wise skills. The study concludes that weather holds agency as it exerts a significant power in directing and redirecting human nature-based activities.