Christine Herawati Limbong

Adventure tourism has received significant attention recently because it offers unique sensations. Managers of adventure tourism objects need to understand the determinants of satisfaction in adventure tourism. This study aims to examine the effect of intrinsic motivation and flow theory on extreme and non-extreme adventure tourists’ satisfaction in Indonesia. This study uses a quantitative approach. The sample includes 405 tourists engaged in adventure tourism activities (extreme adventure tourism activities – 200 respondents, and non-extreme adventure tourism activities – 205 respondents). Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) was used to analyze the data. The results show that autonomy and competence influence flow experience (p-value < 0.05). This applies to extreme adventure and non-extreme adventure tourism. Furthermore, flow experience has a positive effect on adventure tourist satisfaction. In the context of extreme adventure tourism, autonomy does not affect the satisfaction of extreme adventure tourists (path coefficients = 0.025 and p-value = 0.761). In the context of non-extreme adventure tourism, competence does not affect the satisfaction of non-extreme adventure tourists (path coefficients = –0.036 and p-value = 0.682). This study recommends that managers of non-extreme tourism spots add challenging aspects to tour packages because they are believed to increase tourist satisfaction.