Jess Ponting

Consuming Nirvana: the Social Construction of Surfing Tourist Space Jess Ponting

In the twenty first century, imagery of 'Nirvana' (empty perfect waves breaking in remote exotic locations) fuels a multi-billion dollar global surf industry and drives surfing tourism to every surfable coast from Iceland to Antarctica. Focusing on Indonesia's Mentawai Islands, home to the world's richest surf fields and the largest fleet of surf charter boats ever assembled, this book develops a new theory of the social construction of surfing tourist 'space'. This theory of 'Nirvanification' expands previous notions of tourist space and explores how socially constructed surfing tourist space is overlaid upon remote regions of developing nations such as the Mentawai, impacting host communities and environments as it goes. Understanding of the mechanics of Nirvana-building reveals the agency of stakeholders to improve existing models of surfing tourism development. The book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of geography, sociology and tourism studies as well as surfers and surf industry professionals with an interest in making surf tourism a force for positive change and sustainable development.