October 14, 2009 09:24 in Nature-Bound News by john ::

By Deidrie Macken for FINANCIAL REVIEW

There’s a new kind of tourism boom that’s not so much luxury as post-luxury. It’s adventure travel for the heart – and the souvenirs are enduring.

The adventure travel experience is not confined to the third world. The journey can be literally, and figuratively, internal. Former event organiser John Thompson has brought the movement home through his Nature-Bound Australia group. “The real adventure lies in the intellectual, cultural and spiritual fulfilments awaiting you in the richly diverse landscapes and habitats Australia offers. We choose to visit, not invade, while practicing a responsible and sustainable travel ethic.”

Based in Brisbane, Thompson’s tours explore outback Australia, largely with visitors from the UK, US and Europe. We call ourselves eco-tours, but we are also conscious of supporting local businesses – so it is more than eco-tourism. We have to sustain those people who are trying to survive in remote areas, so we stay in small hotels, get locals to take us birding, go out for dinner with locals and go to their small wineries.
Thompson has expanded the experience to include “real” Australian characters in their own habitats. “Australia is a wonderful place to run into these sorts of characters. None of it is orchestrated. They are remembered by the travellers as “the people we met”.

“One business man said we should offer trips to people at midlife so they can get out into the wilderness, sit on a rock and figure things out.” But we don’t conduct any therapy, it’s a case of taking people safely and comfortably into a pristine environment and letting the environment do the rest.