Alternatives to Development in Surfing Tourism: A Diverse Economies Approach

Responding to the socio-ecological impacts associated with conventional surfing tourism, the field of sustainable surf tourism (SST) promotes the sustainable development of Global South surfing destinations. However, while advancing community-based research and governance approaches, SST scholarship has yet to engage with a decolonial critique of the sustainable development paradigm, or employ decolonizing methods in empirical studies, representing aresearch gap this article endeavors to address. This study draws on a postdevelopment conceptual frame useful for reconsidering SST-for-sustainable-development models. Fieldwork in a Costa Rican surf tourism community employed participatory action research (PAR) aligned with decolonizing methodologies to explore alternatives to development in surfing tourism. Research outcomes and discussion examine the postcapitalist framework of diverse economies (Gibson-Graham, 2005) as a decolonial approach to SST research. Conclusions from this study contribute a field example from SST research to extend diverse economic frames and methods in sustainable and regenerative tourism.