Towards more sustainable business practices in surf industry clusters
Résumé
This chapter deals with the local development of the French surf industry in the
Aquitaine region and its impacts on the local economy. Tendencies towards
more sustainable business practices are outlined using practical examples from
the French surfing cluster. Sport leverages economic development directly
through sport participation, spectators, tourism, and sales of sport equipment.
Indirect impacts of sport are through infrastructure, hospitality, hotel and transport
services related to sport (Dolles and Soderman, 2008; Preuss, 2005).
Outdoor sports and economic development related to them tend to develop in
places that provide favourable conditions to practise the respective sport. These
observations have led to an important number of studies on localised sport industries,
also referred to as sport industry clusters (Chetty, 2004; Gerke et al., 2015;
Glass and Hayward, 2001; Kellett and Russell, 2009; Parker and Beedell, 2010;
Sarvan et al., 2012; Shilbury, 2000).