Tourism from Water Boardsports: Evidence from the Emerging Destination of Sardinia

Nicoletta Fadda ()
Additional contact information
Nicoletta Fadda: University of Sassari

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2019, vol. 10, issue 4, No 21, 1720-1737

Abstract: Abstract This paper deals with an emerging tourist segment related to the practice of water boardsports: kitesurfing, windsurfing and surfing. In particular, its purpose is to analyse touristic implications arising from practising these sports in order to evaluate their capacity to attract tourists to the renowned “sea-sun-sand” destination of Sardinia, as well as strengthen this segment in terms of a prospective tourism de-seasonality strategy. A double analysis approach, focused on supply and demand, was adopted. Supply was examined by firstly mapping all schools related to boardsports located on Sardinia, before undertaking a web-based email survey. Demand was investigated by carrying out a web-based survey among riders, from both Sardinia and elsewhere, who usually practise their boardsports along Sardinian shores. The surveys were conducted from August 2016 to April 2017, with 311 questionnaires collected from practitioners and 21 from the school entrepreneurs. According to the supply analysis, schools for boardsports are widespread along the island’s coasts, which confirms an increase in the growth of these activities. The demand study has underlined an increasing flow of people, both Sardinian and not, who regularly practise their boardsports along Sardinian shores, as they are considered suitable favoured by windy conditions, especially during the off-season period. Travel behaviours and the perception of surfing spot conditions have been analysed. Moreover, findings suggest that, in order to strengthen this touristic supply in terms of more services, collaborations between actors may prove to be an effective strategy for attracting tourists during the off-season period.

Keywords: Water boardsports; Surf tourism; Seasonality; Managerial and policy-making implications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-019-0587-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:10:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s13132-019-0587-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-019-0587-8

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().