Alex Greenwood - S-Cape Partners UK

I thought a good place to start would just be defining active adventure travel.

Like what actually is this? It's a term that gets kind of banded around a lot when people talk about travel trends.

You know, does outdoor active travel always have to be extreme? Does it always have to be really hard? You know, if you don't want to slog up Scarborough Pike and you still take part in this, is there something for you if you're not that fit? It would be great to just, yeah, what do you think?

I think it's changed a lot.

So when I first started with HF Holidays, then certainly it was clear that a good walk was seen by members as a good hearty hard all day walk.

And I'm also an ambassador of the Adventure Travel Trade Association.

And certainly when I joined that, which is a global organization, of tour operators.

When I started that they saw adventure in the most extreme way and I'll never forget my first summit in Switzerland because I'm a winter mountaineer and I did a walk in crampons chained to people with a 650 meter drop either side which was pretty

Pretty scary that

sounds.

Oh yes, we had somebody sobbing and crawling.

And other people on their adventure were bungee jumping out of cable cars.

And what's really interesting to me is that that was 2011 and I've been a member now for 15 years.

And when we went to the latest summit, which was in Quebec, Canada in September, people were whale watching.

They went to the spa and had lunch after a little city walk.

They went out with some indigenous people and watch them do their indigenous dancing and listen to them telling stories you know their native stories so it's a really interesting question what adventure means and I sometimes wonder if adventure in the outdoors nowadays just means curiosity and being interested in your natural surroundings and being out in the open air and a willing participant.

So it doesn't really matter if you're not at the top of Scorefell Pike.

You might be taking Lull Ratty and then doing a little gentle stroll back down the valley to Ravenglass.

We offer all sorts of walks.

One of the latest trips that we've just developed is along the west coast of Cumbria.

And that really is such a lovely introduction to walking.

It's really comprised of local dog walks all the way along the New King Charles III Coastal Trail.

So I don't think anybody should be intimidated.

Any level you want to get engaged with, there'll be something for you for sure, especially in Cumbria.

I touched on it about the value of the outdoors being really, really discovered for some people obviously, but more people perhaps than ever before, that how good a little bit of gentle activity makes you feel.