Many rivers have rapids or whitewater in the terminology of river rafters, canoeists and kayakers. Most rivers start small and steep with rapids in their upper sections. Some cut through gorges which are steep or narrow enough to form rapids even if sections upstream and downstream are both slow-flowing. Some form rapids over gravel bars even in broad shallow reaches. Some even form rapids right at the ocean shoreline, as tidal movements augment the river’s own flow to form races, whirlpools, waves or tidal bores.
Whitewater attracts boaters, and this provides the basis for a large whitewater tourism and recreation sector worldwide. Commercial rafting trips are one of the archetypal components of the adventure tourism industry (Buckley 2006), and sales of recreational whitewater kayaks continue to rise year by year (Outdoor Industry Association, 2007). This chapter provides an overview of the commercial whitewater tourism sector as it currently operates worldwide, picking out particular features which distinguish it from other forms of river tourism. The sector has received rather little attention in the academic literature to date, though case studies are provided in Buckley (2006).