Consuming nirvana : an exploration of surfing tourist space
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2008
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The purpose of this inquiry is to explore the social construction of surfing tourist space
in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia and to expand existing theory to explain the process
by which tourist space comes to be overlaid upon the geographical and social domain
of destination communities. A review of surfing tourism literature revealed a modest
body of knowledge that was largely descriptive, and devoid of any clear theoretical and
philosophical perspectives. In order to gain an understanding of the historicity in the
production of surfing tourist space, a review of academic and popular surfing literature
was undertaken. This review indicated the importance of commercial surf industry
discourse, disseminated through a specialist surf media, in defining and maintaining an
idealised surfing tourist space (labelled ‘Nirvana’), which is based on the search for,
and consumption of, the ‘perfect wave’. A social constructionist interpretation of
grounded theory was employed in order to collect and analyse observations and indepth
interviews of surfing tourists, surf tour operators, surf industry and media
representatives, and locals, from which a number of interpretations were drawn.
Firstly, surfing tourist space – Nirvana - is a fragile and contested space based upon
four symbolic elements: perfect waves; uncrowded conditions; cushioned adventure;
and, a pristine tropical environment. A four-phase process (referred to as
Nirvanification) was developed in order to interpret the way in which tourist space is
overlaid upon the social and geographical domain of destinations. It is argued that this
space is remotely constructed, highly symbolic, and ‘disembedded’ from local realities
in the Mentawai Islands. Nirvanification revolves around the construction of symbolic
elements of tourist space where it is threatened by alternative discourses, which the
industry counters by deploying various myths. The ramification of Nirvanification for
local communities in the Mentawais is marginalisation from the economic benefits
from tourism. In conclusion this study identified channels for resistance and change
which provide an alternative theoretical and philosophical position from which to
question the assumptions that underlie socially constructed tourist space.
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