Travel and adventure have always gone hand in hand, but there is a new breed of tourist demanding more from their adventure holiday than a banana boat and a ride on a camel.
Tour operators are increasingly featuring adventure-based activities in their brochures, but niche operators specialising exclusively in adventure travel are yet to emerge in the Middle East and operators often leave customers to book their own add-on tours when they reach the destination.
The only exception to this rule is the operators that specialise in African safaris.
Several large UAE-based operators like Emirates Holidays and Etihad Holidays have pre-packaged safari tours, but other smaller companies like Africa Connections, which represents game lodges and safari camps in locations across Africa are springing up in the GCC, offering tailor made itineraries including everything except flights.
Africa lends itself perfectly to soft adventure holidays where customers can mix adventure with stays in luxury in safari lodges, or hard adventures such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Asia offers everything from family-friendly adventure opportunities like white water rafting, jungle trekking or staying in a jungle lodge, to intense adventure options like climbing up to Mount Everest base camp.
Etihad Holidays' Julia Denny reminds agents that customers can break up long journeys to Australia or China with a stopover in places like Sri Lanka or Malaysia, where eco-resorts can act as a base for soft adventure excursions in the jungle.
Thailand and Malaysia are already popular destinations with GCC travellers, but adventure holiday options are yet to be properly exploited, while emerging Asian destinations like India, China and Korea are crying out for innovative operators to package organised and tailor made trips.
The new direct Emirates flight from Dubai to Brazil to be launched in October will open a portal into a new and unexplored continent for GCC travellers, while self-drive trips across the US, Australia or New Zealand are an adventure in themselves.
"Many families visiting New Zealand choose a self-drive holiday where they can easily drive through New Zealand's amazing landscape," explains Nicola Cunich, manager UAE, Tourism New Zealand.
"Every couple of hours the landscape changes dramatically from rivers, mountains and lakes to the beautiful coastal beaches and then to the geothermal areas. And remember the alpine options in the winter especially in the South," she adds.
For more off-the-beaten track adventure holidays that customers are unlikely to find in a brochure, UAE and Oman-based adventure specialist Absolute Adventures has a wide selection of fixed departures and tailor made excursions.
"Serious adventure isn't something you take lightly; it has to be done in an organised professional manner," explains managing director Paul Oliver.
As well universally friendly hiking and kayaking trips, the company offers once-in-a-lifetime opportunities such as trekking to the Mount Everest base camp or navigating the ancient Inca Trail in Peru, the kind of adventure suited to independent travellers in their mid-thirties to late-forties, according to Oliver; those who earn above average incomes and who are therefore likely to be able to take time off work for such a trip: "The only times we would do things that could be considered a regular trip is when the destination itself is considered to be the adventure, so for instance our most popular destination right now is Yemen," he explains.
"Yemen is a very popular place and people want to go there but they don't trust going there on their own. I spend a lot of time on the ground looking for the right people and finding interesting accommodation, and that doesn't mean five-star, that means local fundaqs and guest houses, traditional stone tower houses and so on."
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