Abstract
This chapter refutes traditional approaches that frame risk and thrill as the primary focus of adventure experiences and notions that adventure is inherently beneficial for participants. It identifies a range of potential psychological well-being benefits that adventure tourism offers participants, guides, and communities and suggests mechanisms that may help explain how these benefits are achieved. Framing adventure activities in terms of underlying psychological mechanisms (e.g. nature connectedness, basic psychological need satisfaction) can improve our understanding of how adventure tourism, when done well, fosters both hedonic and eudaimonic psychological well-being. This approach has important implications for the value that individuals and society place on adventure and how it is practised. This chapter explores contemporary research on adventure motivations and psychological well-being benefits of adventure for participants, guides and communities, and illustrates the untapped potential of adventure to foster well-being for broader populations. It also suggests key mechanisms that underpin psychological well-being outcomes of adventure and recommends how future research and practice can support the development of more inclusive adventure tourism opportunities. Finally, it explores how findings from larger disciplines can enhance psychological models of adventure and inform the purposeful design of adventure experiences that facilitate a range of well-being outcomes.