Adventure Parks Around the World
High ropes courses have been used by France and Britain for training military units since the early 1900s. As the rope courses, which were originally part of the training program of qualified soldiers sent by these countries to the World Wars, spread to the civilian education and entertainment area after the war, the spread of the track culture gained speed.
The high ropes courses, which were started to be used for civil education and entertainment purposes in the 1980s, encountered intense interest from the park and personal protective equipment manufacturers in the early 2000s, and thus became suitable for safe use and operation of everyone. The inclusion of themed parks, adventure areas where smart connection systems and physical strength are not needed, taking the sector beyond the rope course, where many “high” activities such as zipline, climbing wall, giant swing, human slingshot, bouncing nets and free fall come together paved the way for adventure parks.
High ropes courses have equivalents in the world literature such as “ropes course”, “challenge course”, “aerial adventure park”, “tree-top adventure park”, “team course”. Some of these names describe the same areas of activity, and some of them are used for areas that differ in terms of use and form. For example, the ropes course is divided into two basic groups in the literature: high ropes course and low ropes course. Since this distinction will not be easy to measure, the course where the use of personal protective equipment and lifeline are mandatory for safe use are called high rope course, others are called low ropes course.
Adventure parks, where international standards were not adopted until the 2000s, have been regulated by EN in Europe and ASTM in the USA as a result of the increase in demand and number after these years and started to be included in the legislation of the countries.