Serious Leisure, Social Identity and Sport Tourism

‘Serious leisure’ is a concept used to describe leisure activities that are ‘sufficiently substantial and interesting in nature for the participant to find a career there acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience’ [1 [1] R. Stebbins, Amateurs, Professionals and Serious Leisure (Montreal: McGill-Queens University, 1992). ]. Serious leisure participants are often highly identified with the subculture of their chosen activity. Consequently, sport tourism can provide serious leisure participants with (1) a way to construct and/or confirm one's leisure identity, (2) a time and place to interact with others sharing the ethos of the activity, (3) a time and place to parade and celebrate a valued social identity, (4) a way to further one's leisure ‘career’, and (5) a way to signal one's career stage. By understanding the nexus of serious leisure, social identity and subculture, we are better able to describe and explain participation in what we term ‘serious sport tourism’.