Abstract:
Surfers are individuals who ride waves and have deep consumpt with the natural environment and surfing is the sport of riding the surf on a surfboard. According to SLTDA, tourism industry has become an increasingly responsible sector for the growth of the economy and for foreign exchange earnings in country. Sri Lanka Tourism Development Strategy 2011-2016 mentioned that tourism products was diversified with special emphasis on eco-tourism, recreational tourism, medical tourism, leisure tourism and sport tourism. Surf tourism comes under recreational and sport tourism. Mirissa is developed as a popular surfing
Destination with a long time period. This study mainly focusses on finding the Socio-economic Impact of Surf Tourism on Local Communities and giving recommendation for impact on the local people and other stake holders. Researcher has to use both of qualitative and the quantitative data
Collection method for this research. Researcher have used only primary data. Information of host community has collected through using close ended questionnaires, five point Likert scale questionnaires and information about surf camp owners, employees and community leaders were gather through personnel interviews. Surf tourism in Mirissa area has been identified as a major income source for the most of the people living there.
