With more than 273,000 people heading to Las Vegas for an extended Labor Day weekend, the time to make your more adventurous plans are right now. According to James Hoke, president of TourGuy.com LLC, adventure and ecotourism day trips and half-day trips from Las Vegas are being booked quickly.

"We have the best track record for reserving seats on some of the most popular adventure tour and travel excursions in Las Vegas," says Hoke. "However, there is a threshold when every seat on a helicopter, raft, or ATV is reserved."

Hoke says the limited availability of space this weekend is the result of three factors. First, Orbitz named Las Vegas the king of Labor Day weekend tourism for the third straight year in a row. Second, almost 90 percent of Californians are looking for destinations that they can drive to over the weekend, which gives them more money for once-in-a-lifetime adventures. And third, some tour operators have scaled down, leaving them less equipped to handle a short-term upswing.

"We're very fortunate to be connected to proven operators that can handle last minute accommodations because the last thing we want is to turn people away," said Hoke. "Adventure tourism — which includes physical activity, nature-based travel and cultural experiences — is the fastest-growing segment of tourism worldwide."

Hoke cites the recent benchmark study conducted by the Adventure Travel Trade Association. The study shows that "adventure travel is a sector of tourism increasingly recognized for attracting environmentally and culturally aware consumers and for its focus on responsible and sustainable development."

Usually, the activities are broken out into three categories: hard (e.g., climbing, trekking, etc.) or soft (e.g., bird watching, safari, etc.) adventure activities and “other” tourism activities. Combined, this travel segment is twice the size of the cruise industry and accounts for nearly 150 million adventure trips taken every year.

"In Las Vegas, people enjoy the best of both worlds," said Hoke. "They come for all the energy of the Las Vegas Strip, nightlife, clubs, and gambling as opposed to adventure travel. However, once they are here, they look for mini adventures that take them off the Strip for a half or full day."

Examples Of Popular Adventure Tourism In Las Vegas.

Top Hard Adventure Tour. It's six hours of Las Vegas ATV racing across extinct volcano beds near the rugged McCullough Mountain range and a dry lake bed. Depending on the experience of the riders, they can cover 20 to 50 miles during an excursion that takes them to remote areas other visitors never see.

Top Soft Adventure Tour. A short 35-minute flight to the Hualapai Indian lands, which includes hiking, photo opportunities, and an authentic Indian barbecue lunch on the edge of the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. This is also one of the most affordable Grand Canyon air and ground tours offered from Las Vegas.

Cultural Experience Tour. In less than five hours, visitors have an opportunity to see Hoover Dam, one of the seven engineering wonders of the world. This half-day tour includes VIP priority access to the Hoover Dam Discovery Tour, which introduces visitors to the natural history and inner workings of this engineering marvel.