F r a n z S c h e i b m a y r, M a r t i n B u r t s c h e r, T h o m a s K Ăź p p e r, Wo l f g a n g S c h o b e r s b e r g e r
HÜhenanpassungsprofile bei kommerziellen Tr e k k i n g t o u r e n Internationale Empfehlungen versus touristische Realität Profiles of high altitude adaptation during commercial trekking tours International recommendations in comparison to the reality of tourism
S U M M A RY Because of the fact that more and more people are looking for a great adventure on their holiday, also the number of tourists in commercial organized trekking tours rises enormously. Not only the absolute number of trekking tourists, but also the cases of trekkers suffering from acute mountain sicknesses increases in parallel. International guidelines give a global calculation of the time needed for high altitude adaptation/acclimatisation. Whether the profiles of high altitude adaptation/acclimatisation in commercial trekking tours are similar to these guidelines or not, has not been studied before. By analyzing 111 commercial trekking routes using the traffic light system for the three typical signal colours (red = big discrepancy, yellow = some discrepancy, green = no discrepancy as compared to the guidelines) we could demonstrate enormous differences between the international guidelines and the touristic reality. For example, not more than 28 % of all studied treks can be classified as fulfilling the guidelines concerning the advice of a rest day after 1000 m altitude difference. More and more trekking agencies try to accept the desires of the trekking tourists and start to modify and shorten well prepared trekking tours. The danger of this reaction is that the agencies ignore the acclimatisation rules at high altitudes and incriminate the inexperienced tourist with additional risks during the
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