Branding Huntington Beach, Surf City USA®: Visitors, residents, and businesses

Abstract

This study examines the branding of surfing culture for tourism purposes in Huntington Beach (HB), Surf City USA®, since the early twentieth century. After discussing previous works on tourist area life cycles, this study taps into the place branding theory to show surfing integration within the local growth strategy of the city. Results suggest that stakeholders of tourism development not only aim at attracting visitors, but also residents and businesses, thus creating conflicts arising from the definition of the image of surfing, and from its commodification. This analysis is based on archival research of regional newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, as well as on 20 semi-structured interviews taped between 2010 and 2018 with the main stakeholders of surfing marketing and place branding. Stakeholders include elected local government officials, local surfers and residents, members of nonprofit sports organizations, board members of tourism businesses, as well as a global brand president of an action sports company.