EN
Currently, tourism is one of the basic branches of the global economy. Its rapid development in the second half of the 20th century was one of the most characteristic manifestations of the transformation from industrial to post-industrial society and an important measure of civilisational development (Kowalczyk, 2000). More and more frequently, tourism is referred to as an industry, even though the term leads to a lot of controversy both among theoreticians and practitioners from the sector (Alejziak, 2000). It seems however, that the term "tourist industry'' emphasizes not only the mass character of tourism, but also the huge aggression of many forms of tourism in relation to the natural environment. Adventure tourism is one of the forms of contemporary tourism that are gaining in popularity. It assumes a higher or lesser level of physical activity, and therefore represents "active leisure outdoors, taking place in an unusual, exotic, remote or wild area" (Fennell, 2000). Page and Dowling (2002) have a similar view, defining adventure tourism as activity-oriented tourism in the natural environment the authors stress that it is based on contact with nature; it involves physical challenges, but also contains an educational component. Thus, adventure tourism can assume various forms and dimensious. Page and Dowling (2002) distinguish three types of adventure tourism: small-scale tourism with numerous elements of ecotourism (bird watching, scuba diving); (2) middle-scale, sport-oriented tourism (e.g. canoeing, rafting); (3) large-scale tourism, manifesting features of mass tourism (e.g. safari). Fennell (2000), in order to avoid problems with defining the boundary between adventure tourism, cultural tourism and ecotourism, suggests to introduce the acronym ACE (adventure, cultural, ecotourism) (Fig. 3). The term has become popular with practitioners and organisers of tourism, mainly because it implies the generation of a compound tourist product, combining many various attractions, as opposed to specialised tourist products. Such a compound product may be popular with a broad group of consumers, hoping for diverse sensations during their tourist travels.