How to Make Money Hiking (Through Adventure Tourism)

Introduction to this Guide on How To Make Money Hiking

One of the biggest challenges of traveling and living overseas is the living part – how to eat, drink, clothe yourself, get medical care, etc. Aside from niche industries and high-powered jobs at in-demand global companies, the options for young adventurers to finance their travels have historically been limited to teaching English as a second language (ESL) or volunteering with an NGO.

In 2021 onwards, though, you have a lot more options in terms of paying expenses while having a blast overseas. You can start online tutoring, earn from digital marketing, start a faceless YouTube channel, and countless other side hustles.

For outdoor enthusiasts, there is another option: it's possible to make money hiking as a tour adventure guide. So strap on your digital nomad backpack, because here is everything that you need to know about getting paid to do what you love.

What Is the ‘Adventure Travel Industry'?

Are you an explorer or a holidaymaker? Do you know the difference?

Although there is no exact definition, adventure tourism has been defined by its pioneers as:

Movement of people to another place outside their comfort zone for exploration or travel – be these places exotic or hostile.

The days of the great explorers like Magellan circumnavigating the globe with a single ship, tangling with the natives, and limping back into Portugal port with a skeleton crew and a lifetime's worth of stories may be in the past, but that doesn't mean adventurous travel is dead.

If you prefer plastic walls to oak, or watered-down whiskey to the real thing, or brass passed off as gold, adventure tourism isn't for you. There are plenty of comfortable hotels dotting developed coastlines and mountain “resorts” in the highlands for you.

But if you truly crave adventure, the adventure travel industry is where the action is.

Why Adventure Tour Operators Are in Demand

Why would someone pay an adventure tour operator to showcase their destination instead of just forging ahead themselves? A few reasons:

Changes in travel patterns. Adventurists, particularly from Western countries, have ditched the conventional holiday itinerary of stays at overpriced beach resorts for a more authentic, “on-the-ground” outdoor experience.
Tour operators know the local region. Despite the wide availability of information on the web, there is no substitute for a tour guide who knows the locale like the back of his or her hand. A good adventure guide will know the most picturesque scenery to snag the perfect selfie, the layout of the local flora and fauna (for example, how to find the animals on a safari), and the most interesting historical sites that might not be on the pamphlet you picked up at the airport or on LonelyPlanet.
Adventure tour operators have critical local connections. If you have traveled in the Third World before, then you likely understand that, in many situations, who you know is more important than what you know. Whether it's a personal relationship with a local park ranger or a border guard in an area that straddles an international border, a tour guide with these types of connections is an asset for creating a smooth experience.
The chance to connect with other wandering souls. “Not all who wander are lost.” Many of us are looking for something, even if we don't know what it is. Chances are, if you enroll in a group adventure tour, you are going to meet kindred spirits – they might even become friends forever. Lifelong friendships forged on the backroads of faraway lands are more common than you might think.
Safety. By its nature, adventuring far from home carries intrinsic risk – even in the safest of destinations. While eliminating all the dangers is impossible (such a task is impossible in these circumstances), adventure tour guides are tasked with taking all necessary and reasonable precautions to protect the health and welfare of their clients.

What Activities Do Adventure Tour Guides Facilitate?

Adventure tour guides take clients on a variety of guided activities that can include but are not limited to:

Walking
Cycling
Kayaking
Fishing
Boating
Camping
Skydiving
Rock-climbing
Cultural immersion
Scuba diving

From jumping out of airplanes to taking part in indigenous ceremonies in Peru, the sky is the limit in terms of what form adventure tourism can take.

If a niche within this growing tourism sector doesn't yet exist, you can even carve out your own. There are few rules about what constitutes “adventure tourism.”

Where Do Adventure Tourist Guides Operate?

Literally, with the exception of active warzones (and even then, the most extreme “disaster tourists” pay guides to accompany them there), almost any destination under the sun is likely to have some kind of market for adventure tourism:

Vietnam
Cambodia
Thailand
All of Southeast Asia, really
Spain
Oceania
Iran
Mongolia
Antarctica

The whole point – or at least one of the main points – of adventure tourism is to get “lost” off the beaten track. What this means is that even areas with little conventional “tourism” – i.e., expensive resorts and novelty restaurants catering to foreign visitors – are likely to attract adventurers looking for a more authentic taste of the “real world” away from the tourist hotspots.

Also, if you're just breaking into the industry, there's no need to jump in full-time necessarily. You can supplement your income with online teaching jobs or other work as a bridge to full-time work or as a way to test the waters and see if becoming an adventure guide is right for you.

Paradigm Changes and the Future of Adventure Tourism

Arguably, the past events of the world from 2019 onwards forever changed the tourist landscape.

Since the experience of social distancing guidelines and lockdowns, travelers are increasingly looking for outdoor adventures that are perceived to be safer and, indeed, more adventurous.

We are in the midst of a paradigm shift away from mindless, empty consumerism – an ethos that has plagued the tourism industry for decades – in favor of real, meaningful, sustainable connections forged through real adventure, real adversity, and real challenge. We crave authentic connections.

This is the promise of adventure tourism…as well as it being a genuine way to make money hiking.

Here are a selection for resources for you to read more about making money hiking by being a tour guide:

And How to Make Money Talking about Hiking…

Many travelers and Digital Nomads choose to earn extra cash by sharing stories of their adventures online. This can be done by tutoring adults online via Cambly.

You can get paid to have online tutor sessions with adults across the world who want to practice their English. It's truly an opportunity to learn about other cultures and get paid for it! This is exactly what makes Cambly an attractive option for Nomadic income seekers…and can even be done in-between hikes or adventure tours.