Welcome to 2011 and to TravelWorld International’s Adventure and Offbeat Travel issue!

This issue marks my first as editor, and adventure is one of my favorite types of travel as it helps individuals push physical as well as mental boundaries. I share one such personal experience hiking China’s Tiger Leaping Gorge (p. 20).

Of course, adventure travel is inherently subjective: One traveler may define taking a walking tour as adventurous, while for another nothing less than a rugged multi-day trek across mountainous terrain qualifies. In between there are myriad soft adventure activities such as zip-lining, voluntourism and camping.

The benchmark study Adventure Tourism Market Report, conducted in late 2009 by George Washington University in partnership with the Adventure Travel Trade Association and Xola Consulting, found that travelers spent more than $89 billion (excluding airfare/gear/clothing) on adventure travel in 2009, with nearly 150 million adventure trips taken every year.

Those are impressive numbers—and the market is growing, with a 140 percent increase in the percentage of respondents planning to take a hard-adventure trip for their next vacation, and a 20 percent increase for those planning upcoming soft-adventure activities.

In this issue, our NATJA writers share a broad range of stellar adventure and offbeat experiences that we hope readers will find inspirational: Brandon Wilson’s feature (p. 8) covers his 111-day hike across the Alps. Returning NATJA writers Nancy Schretter vividly describes her African safari wildlife sightings (p. 34); Karin Leperi covers both adventure and offbeat with her exhilarating physical activities in West Virginia via raft, helicopter and ATV (p. 28), and the paranormal in Boise, Idaho (p. 42); and travel photographer Dale Sanders shares his South Pacific escape to One Foot Island (p. 48). Newcomer Jill K. Robinson takes us on an exploration of her second home, the Honduran island of Guanaja (p. 14). And don’t miss our spa, arts, history and senior columns!

Returning readers won’t find too many changes to the magazine yet, but one I’d like to draw attention to is Travelogue (p. 60), a new column profiling travel writers. Kicking off the section is Linda Ballou, an adventure writer whose latest book was selected last month as Third Place Winner for Travel Book or Guide in NATJA’s 2010 Awards Competition. Check out p. 65 for the complete list of award winners.

I hope you enjoy the issue and find new adventures in 2011…

Safe travels!

Donna M. Airoldi, Editor-in-Chief