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This dissertation explores the emergence of surf tourism as a significant aspect of rural communities. It uses an inductive qualitative approach focused on Tofino, British Columbia, Canada as an example to provide an in-depth exploration of a rural community effected by this phenomenon. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a snowball sample of key informants to address the following research objectives: (1) What factors have influenced the evolution of surf tourism in Tofino; (2) How might the evolution of surf tourism in this case study relate to the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC); (3) What is the impact of surf tourism on the broader community development of Tofino? Analysis of the Tofino data elicited following themes: (1) For some, surfing is a desirable lifestyle, reflecting in some ways the concepts of specialization, serious leisure, and community’s identity; (2) Surf shops are a community hub for local surfers and surf tourists; (3) Pacific Rim National Park plays a critical role in the region, contributing to surfing and the surf tourism industry, but has yet to fully engage with surfers or the surfing industry; (4) New and more affordable equipment technology has brought increased access to cold-water surf and surf tourism, reducing what may have constrained the early development of surf tourism; (5) Considerable increases in the supply and demand for surfing in Tofino have occurred, tempered by the increased number of surfing competitions and other new tourism segments that exist in the community; (6) Increasing safety issues may undermine the growth of surf tourism; (7) Limits to surf tourism growth are evident regarding facility and physical carrying capacity; (8) As a result of the considerable growth of surfing in Tofino, recreational crowding, and conflict are in evidence, as are coping mechanisms; (9) ‘Localism’ exists in Tofino, but perhaps less so than in other destinations which have a fixed beach break; (10) Surf tourism has the potential for positive and negative impacts on First Nations communities in the region; and (11) Local government plays an important role. These themes were then analyzed and linked to the following theoretical concepts: serious leisure; specialization; leisure constraints; localism; violence; conflict; crowding, carrying capacity, amenity migration, the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC); and, rural tourism. This led to some intriguing findings. For example, unlike most other popular surf tourism destinations, crowding is not so apparent in the surf because the surf breaks in the Tofino area are primarily beach breaks that constantly shift as the bathymetry of the ocean floor changes with tides and currents, resulting in constant wave changes. This contrasts with fixed break conditions found elsewhere, so in Tofino it is easier to avoid other surfers by simply moving to another part of the wave. When the Tofino findings were compared with TALC, some similarities and differences were noted. Factors that appear to be consistent with the TALC model are: increasing numbers of tourists, changing type of tourists (e.g. more mass tourists, compared to the early days of surf tourism), increasing numbers of tourism facilities, increased levels of marketing, increased levels of interaction between visitors and local communities (perhaps leading to instances of conflict, and localism), and increased economic benefits to the community. However, one possible departure from the expected trajectory is impacts on the natural environment, which have increased in some ways, but are improved in other ways. There has been some environmental change in terms of the growth in the town of Tofino, and with the development of lodgings near to the surrounding beaches. However, much of the larger landscape, remains largely intact or less impacted than what might have occurred without the presence of Pacific Rim National Park, and the Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve. Further, the TALC model suggests that the development of tourism will lead to lesser local control of development. The Tofino findings suggest that there remains a great deal of local control and that local government support the tourism industry, including surf tourism. It was noted that the emerging surf tourism refers to several concepts found in the general nature tourism literature, such as crowding, conflict and carrying capacity, but the surf tourism literature tends to overlook the complexity of some of these concepts. For example, future surf tourism research might consider more explicit examination of the various dimensions of conflict described in this study, including in group and outgroup conflict, interpersonal conflict and social values conflict. There is little evidence of the incorporation of these concepts in the surf tourism literature. Finally, the data exposed a high level of social capital within the surf community and also between surfers and non-surfers as a facet of a close-knit rural community dependent to a degree on surf tourism as a social driver manifesting in mutual cooperation, trust and reciprocity occurring in social institutions such as surf-shops. / Graduate

The diploma thesis deals with two contemporary phenomena, second home and amenity migration. These phenomena often overlap in the conditions of the Czech Republic, so it is difficult to find a clear border between them. Second home can be understood as a complex of phenomena and processes related to a real estate, which serves as a temporary residency for its owner or user, who uses this real estate especially for recreation purposes. Amenity migration can be defined as a migration of inhabitants with the aim to achieve a better quality of life, better health, relaxation or potentially entertainment as well. It concerns migration of people for non-economic reasons and the direction of amenity migration is predominantly from cities to the countryside. Unlike second home, it is not any form of a temporary residency, but a permanent accommodation. The main goal of the diploma thesis was to explore the phenomenon of second home in the region of Třeboňsko and to evaluate its potential for amenity migration. The goal of the work was realised on the basis of an analysis of the data of the Czech Statistical Office and the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre, by means of both field research and a questionnaire survey with the subsequent evaluation.

The work deals with amenity migration in a natural park "Bohemian Canada". Amenity migration is one of the current global phenomena. Amenity migration is a specific type of migration which is not motivated by economic prosperity of the target area. It is motivated by an effort to live in more valuable socio-cultural surroundings, and it is mainly directed from metropolitan to rural areas. The main aim of this work is to identify the assumptions of the model area for the creation and existence of the phenomenon of "amenity migration". The part of this finding is the identification of the main reasons of amenity migrants moving into this area. The finding of the results of this work was carried out by using a statistical survey, using the technique of interviewing respondents. The survey was carried out from April to June 2010. It was made 101 questionnaires and 95 of them were used to evaluate the results. The research was conducted in the natural park ?Bohemian Canada?. ?Bohemian Canada? is a popular tourist area. It's a rough area, yet romantic charakter, with excellent conditions for amenity migration. In the area there are many summer huts and cottages, which could constitute a potential base for amenity migration.