Introduction

Safety has become a fundamental axis the moment of managing tourist activity worldwide, in Ecuador in the last years, it is a strategy more and more committed to the enjoyment of the tourists since motivated by the natural areas that the country possesses, many of the visitors and/or tourists face security difficulties at the moment of entering these areas. Many of them are not aware of the need to request accompaniment or a guide who becomes the mediator or support of external activities in nature despite not having the necessary knowledge about actions to coexist with the environment in harmony and without affecting its biodiversity. The lack of knowledge of survival techniques for adventure tourists or hikers and service providers threatens the country's already deficient tourism operations.

The problem is compounded by the fact that tourism professionals are not taking their knowledge to the vast majority of the country's continental sectors, since in the places they visit they do not have the guidance of trained people or an accompaniment with basic knowledge that would allow them to educate or give visitors a brief training. Service providers are very conformist with what is offered to those seeking recreational activities in these natural areas, which limits new alternatives or trends in tourism.

It is important to analyze the impact on tourism of learning survival techniques for nature activities. In the case of overnight stays in these areas, which are often dangerous for the hiker. Also for those who visit the place motivated by adventure and who do not master the displacement in open lands with lush vegetation or biomes that confuse the visitor who does not know these spaces.

Therefore, this study aims to identify the activities preferred by adventure hikers in coastal and highland forest sectors to determine survival techniques.

Background

According to ^{Wiseman (2001}), man in the course of his evolution has sought different ways to survive either by developing tools for construction or protection, using elements provided by nature; being the human mind that allows it to adapt to different situations and begins to form groups with an orientation to survive; taking advantage of research to develop tools in the technical and scientific field (page 12).

The Ecuadorian man has evidenced with the passage of history the use of survival techniques, times in which they settled in newly known areas, sectors that favored their existence, such as the inter-Andean alleys and the coast of Santa Elena; they understood that their resistance in unknown lands depended on strategies to stay safe from what the outside world possessed and the dangers they faced; managing to learn about the construction of camps that protected them from the weather, animals and any danger of a little-known world. "In order to make the weapons and instruments necessary for their survival, they later had to restrict their nomadism and even establish workshop camps (as in the case of El Inga)" (^{Mejia, 1975}, p. 13). Little by little they discovered the art of designing and manufacturing tools that facilitated the use and manipulation of the resources provided by nature; they also understood that acting in groups and protecting each other offered them greater control over the situations they faced, and without realizing it, they began to use tools and techniques to survive. "Skilled men carvers of obsidian stone, basalt, and flint that were obtained from the Antisana, by men of the Inga who built: scrapers, knives, drills and many tools necessary for woodworking" (Mejia, 1975, p. 12).

Among the evidence found by historians, the Saraguros that settled between mountains, Jibaros or Shuar that settled in the East and/or in the limits of coast and highlands, the Cañaris of the highlands and the Shuar of the East, all of them through history have strengthened their survival techniques with the knowledge of their natural spaces, and of the flora and fauna that each place possesses.

"Technical study and formal training in survival, tracking and orienteering began in the Armed Forces at the end of the 19th century, and was refined during the 20th century, because of the world wars that exposed military and civilians to extreme situations." (^{Pleticha, 2009}).

In the current XXI century, in tourist activity, survival has become a recreational activity, but it is still not very important, due to the lack of awareness of many visitors who, without knowing these techniques, risk facing danger eager to experience the contact with adrenaline, costing in many cases imminent death. Unfortunately, humanity has forgotten that instinct to survive, because technology has distanced them from contact with nature, their new motives for adventure are linked to the simulated danger of video games and do not allow them to take seriously the moments of travel through natural areas, even risking to spend the night in places of little known nature, where their knowledge becomes inadequate or scarce to participate in those activities (^{Barahona, 2015}).

City dwellers take their days off as the opportune time for outdoor activities, just like many tourists between nationals and foreigners, they usually go on excursions and walks in couples or groups of friends, they decide to visit mountains or open spaces for their distraction, unfortunately, these activities are complicated because they face unexpected weather conditions, either due to lack of knowledge of the site, the weather conditions and in most cases due to lack of foresight, since as hikers they do not have the experience or advice of a specialist, who could surely inform them of the actions to be taken before, during and after these tours, the appropriate elements, clothing, hiking techniques, or survival for these activities; In any case, a guide or specialist could avoid inconveniences that year after year are evidenced in the news, and that have repercussions on the quality of adventure tourism.

In this way, ^{Saldaña (2014}), mentioned in ^{Carvache-Franco, Carvache-Franco, Carvache-Franco, Carvache-Franco, & Xavier (2018}), points out that the elements that would identify the technical quality in different regions where adventure tourism is developed which are: Safety, environment, entity, client, human resources, activity and material resources; considering that the parameter that most should take into account would be safety, since protocols should be managed during the realization of activities and not when accidents happen for tourism companies and operators along with their suppliers.

In Ecuador, there are many places that offer adventure tourism, especially in climbing activities, which are poles of attraction for tourists many Ecuadorians seek to climb, but without taking the proper precautions, the vast majority of lost tourists are rescued safe and returned to their places of origin, although some do not have the same luck.

The present document intends to demonstrate the significant importance of knowledge and/or learning of survival techniques, when linked to the practice of activities in nature or adventure tourism in Ecuador in little-known places or with a level of danger for hikers, considering it a priority at present to offer to cover these shortcomings to those who demand this type of tourism, "who do not master the displacement in open terrain with lush vegetation" as mentioned by ^{Barahona (2015}), and that day by day increases more since it becomes striking to spend the night in these areas, which are often extremely dangerous places if the terrain, its climate, and its physical or geographical instability are unknown.

Table 1 shows a summary of the latest problems that have occurred due to the lack of knowledge of survival techniques of hikers who have faced serious situations in some parts of the country.

Within the tourism activity in the present century, many changes have been evidenced, one of them being the new tourism products that along with the sun and beach tourism have come to stay, among them the so-called "Nature Tourism". This, in turn, has been broken down into very notable byproducts that day by day is gaining space in our Ecuadorian territory since it offers an "approach to the natural environment and knowledge of ecosystems, increased environmental awareness among the population or the creation of new markets for local and national economies" as mentioned by Donaire, 2002; Espejo, 2011; Luque, 2003; Muñoz, 2008 and which has been cited in (^{Ballesteros Pelegrín, 2014}).

Protected areas are not only attractive for their nature, biodiversity, and flora and fauna, but also for hikers, as stated by ^{Ballesteros Pelegrín (2014}, p. 34), who identifies a new group of nature consumers as those who enjoy "Nature as an adventure. Nature is a challenge for tourists; that is why they practice risk sports".

Ecuador is an attractive country for offering spaces to practice adventure tourism since, to its biodiversity and richness of climates and landscapes, it is accompanied by its famous attractive volcanoes such as the Ilinizas, Cotopaxi, Cayambe, and Chimborazo; spaces that attract locals and strangers to hike, and try to reach the snowy peaks of the Ecuadorian Andes (^{Carrasco Ruano, 2018}).

Nature tourism has become one of the favorite options for tourists who are motivated to visit our country "Ecuador" because its natural spaces have unique and special features for adventure sports, hiking, and activities such as hiking, mountaineering, caving, mountain biking, and horseback riding routes that are attractive to perform activities within natural spaces without causing any damage to nature and man. (^{García Cebrian & Olmos Juarez, 2011}).

^{Ballesteros Pelegrín (2014}), mentions that sports activities are those elements that make a tourist destination more attractive compared to another that does not have the capacity to host the practice of sports. (...) Sports activities, as a tourist product, are capable of attracting a certain type of tourist and, in addition, as a complement when choosing other products (p. 38). Returning to risk is a key element that distinguishes the aforementioned outdoor adventure activities.

There is little research on survival techniques that should be considered useful when planning to venture into adventure activities that involve risks, so it is of great importance to raise awareness of the need to strengthen knowledge as an indispensable tool for the practice of these sports activities. The preparation to carry out these activities does not only imply strength and physical capacity, it is also fundamental to instruct on the domain of territories in the open field and knowledge in survival techniques within the adventure sports to protect the tourist or visitor in case of getting lost or facing any situation that causes insecurity or extreme risk.

Methodology

For the present investigation, it was considered to use the design with a qualitative, bibliographic, descriptive, and critical approach; by means of the synthetic analytical method, the analysis of the knowledge of the need to include the survival technique as an indispensable element within the relationship between the environment and the human being, in the key moments of the practice of adventure tourism in mountainous or forest areas, so that the synthesis provides a vision of the causal factors that show why hikers face risks of incidents in their tours and frustrate their satisfaction when visiting Ecuador.

A survey was considered a useful tool to obtain information from tourists and hikers visiting high vegetation zones such as Bucay, coastal areas, mountainous areas such as Quito, and inter-Andean areas. According to figures from ^{MINTUR (2021)}, 434,620 tourists arrived in Ecuador by air, propitious dates were specified as the November holiday of 2021, yielding according to Quito in figures, the data of 69,984 arrivals to the capital, also inquired about the projections of visit in the sector of Bucay province of Guayas, by Mr. Roberto Bustamante, representative of the Ecuadorian Tourism Ministry. Roberto Bustamante, a representative of the "Dulce Aventura Association" owner of the Casa de Piedra Inn and Tourist Complex, mentioned that the place maintains an average of 150 visitors per month. Therefore, an infinite formula was applied to try to cover a representative sample group for the research, dividing the instruments into two groups, within a calculated population of 365 individuals, of which 60% were assigned to visitors and tourists from the Bucay sector and 40% to visitors and tourists from the capital.

Results

A compilation research of events occurred through a documented review of various journalistic sources over a period of 10 years to the current 2022, surveys were conducted on tourists from the coast and mountains, whose analysis allowed us to determine the preferences of practicing adventure tourism in our country, and what would be the survival techniques demanding and timely in these activities.

As can be seen in Table 2:

The results showed that 53% of those surveyed want to venture into the adventure of visiting natural areas such as forests and trails, while 37% do want to go on adventures when visiting mountainous areas in the highlands.

Also, 93% of the respondents accepted that it is necessary to have knowledge of survival techniques for the practice of excursions, whether on the coast or in the mountains, mountains, or vegetation.

Seventy-three percent totally agree that it is necessary to have knowledge of these techniques when participating in activities in nature; in addition to this result, 26% consider that they partially agree with the techniques, so it is understood that they consider the knowledge of these techniques a priority for 99%.

In addition, 99% said that there is a great need for guides to provide advice on survival techniques; and 95% said that there should be a place with equipment where theoretical and practical survival courses are given to visitors, at least the basic elements.

Finally, 98% of the tourists surveyed agreed that if they were trained in survival techniques, they would be able to practice any adventure sport, whether in the vegetation or in the mountains. Results are presented in Figure #1.

Own elaboration based on the data collected.

Figure 1 Statistical data of the respondents 

Similarly, when considering a strategy to provide training courses to all key actors in the tourism activity, tourists or hikers were asked about what they consider to be the priority topics to include in possible training, obtaining as results the topics related to first aid (99%), elements related to safety (95%) and the use of navigation instruments (90%), In a second point of importance, they also consider valuable to have basic knowledge about the handling of emergency signals (85%), construction of shelters (82%), obtaining food and water in nature (81%), use or handling of environmental elements (80%), and finally, reading signs (72%), as shown in Table 3 and represented in Figure 2.

Tourists or hikers who have preferred to visit these forest areas definitely expect to be included in activities related to survival training, since 97% would be willing to return to the place, get involved in the training, and put into practice the knowledge received to achieve the satisfaction of feeling safe when visiting these areas, not only in Ecuador but also in other countries with the same biome characteristics.

Own elaboration based on collected data.

Figure 2 Preferred topics to be included in the training 

Conclusions

It is concluded that knowledge of survival techniques has a significant influence on visitors, tourists, or hikers to motivate them to visit little-known places with high vegetation or in the mountains, thus increasing the demand for nature tourism activities.

It is necessary to offer training on survival techniques so that this type of activity can be practiced in a basic or more specialized way, as appropriate, to reduce the number of incidents, losses, or possible human losses, thus preventing tourism, who are fearful of the insecurity of spaces or equipment, would prefer not to go or practice adventure activities in nature.

It is considered a topic of great value, so this knowledge is distributed as a key, vital, and basic element in many parts of the country, not only in the mountains but in other types of biomes in different regions of the country, especially considering that Ecuador has a great diversity of environments where you can practice variants of nature activities on the coast, highlands, east and island region.

Finally, the weakness of mountain adventure spaces was reflected, as well as the needs of hikers, who, despite the various fortuitous events that have occurred in the country in the last decade, however, are still motivated to visit our natural spaces and want to generate adrenaline by going into these places full of biological and climatic virtues.