6GEO4 Unit 6 Consuming the Rural Landscape-Leisure and Tourism

What is this option about?

• This option focuses on the increasing demands placed on rural areas by the growth of leisure and tourism. You will study the patterns and trends experienced globally of such demands on a range of rural locations: from the edge of urban areas to deep wilderness

• You will include an analysis of these consumption pressures on often fragile human and physical landscapes, and how effectively management may address these.

Synoptic context

People Place Power

Who is involved?How?Why?

Where?When?

Who is responsible?How? Why?

1. Growth of leisure & tourism landscapes

2. Significance and fragility3. Impacts4. Management Issues

CONTENTS

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What is leisure, tourism & recreation?

LEISURE-non working time

Local recreatio

n

Non -Local

recreation

TOURISM

Business and recreational travel

Business & personal

travel

The option summarised

Enquiry Question 1 Growth

Enquiry Question 2 Significance

Enquiry Question 3 Impacts Enquiry Question 4 Management

Leisure /tourism Types :active /

passive Reasons for

changes over time

Different groups and players –roles and responsibilities

Conflicts Values and

attitudes of different users and beneficiaries

Landscape values

Ecological / physical value

Fragility and sensitivity

Wilderness concept

Qualitative & quantitative environmental measures

carrying capacity

Negative impacts of excessive use

Positive impacts of tourism: conservation, increased awareness, protection of heritage sites

Changing impacts over time (increasing or decreasing?)

Comparing threats and opportunities in areas with different levels of development

Arguments for / against management of rural landscapes

‘conservation spectrum’

Players involved in conservation: choices / conflicts

Evaluating the effectiveness of different approaches and options

Enquiry Q 1 Growth of leisure + tourism landscapes

• The rise of leisure tourism and pleasure periphery

• Range of rural landscapes affected

• Attitudes of players involved

• Conflicts

This includes the concepts and processes of

• Rebranding• Commodification and valorization of

post productive landscapes• Honeypot development• Wilderness continuum• Rewilding• Rights of indigenous people• Auditing rural landscapes • Designating protected areas such as

country and National Parks, nature reserves

Rural landscapes continuum

: More remote rural areas within a country or of interest to tourists from abroad – a widening pleasure periphery

‘Pristine’ wilderness? May have low numbers of indigenous people. Often tourism dominated because of remotenessIs any rural landscape really devoid of human influence?

Accessible countryside: visits originate mainly from regional area, transport technology enables day visits eg to a National Park

Urban fringe: traditional location for local recreation and leisure. May be of interest to wider tourism if eg large theme park

Urbanised ‘wilderness’

Pristine wilderness

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Key concept: the widening and deepening pleasure periphery

1800 source – close to home / local W Europe and E USA

1900 Periphery (1) based in NW Europe

1930 Periphery (2) extends to W Mediterranean

1950 Periphery (3) includes all of the Mediterranean

1970 Periphery (4) travel far away and long haul becomes more readily available

1990 Periphery (5) tourists are able access the world’s remotest places eg Antarctica

21st C consolidation? More extreme activities in existing areas . Backlash to ecotourism. Rise of demand from SE Asia especially China 8

Key Players

Leisure and Tourism players

Examples based on one case study

Role and attitudes to rural landscapes

Visitors to / users of area

>8m day visitors/yr>42,000 residents

Depending on whether active or passive users.

Governments UK Lake District NPANatural England

May provide funding / legislation to promote diversification, development etc. Likely to have a social or economic benefits

IGOs UNESCOWorld Heritage Site

Strategic planning, research and advice may sanction aid and investment

NGOs and Pressure groups

Friends of the LD Wildlife Trusts

Pressurise for environmental stability and against degradation. May purchase areas to protect

Local / regional authorities

Cumbria County Council

promotion of rural landscapes to diversify economy, e.g. ‘surfing-tourism’ in SW England. Can create hotspots –leading to traffic issues, pollution, congestion.......

Communities Local groups... If allowed to protest and motivated enough to do so may pressurise governments to increase activities/ decrease uses

Local businesses Watersports... Profit driven, want to encourage uses

TNCs N/A here Profit driven, leakage of profits away from locality

Enquiry Q 2

• Physical significance and ecological value

• Fragility of some rural areas

• Degree of threat, using models

• Use of qualitative and quantitative environmental quality measures

Fragility, thresholds , capacities and resilience Key models and concepts to this option are:

Resilience , basically the ability of an ecosystem and landscape, whether physical or human, to withstand pressure and stay intact

Carrying capacity, the ability or capacity of an area to deal with the numbers and demands of visitors who use an area.

It is based on the idea that any geographical system has certain limits or thresholds. When exceeded, changes may affect not only the physical components of an environment ( ecosystems, soil and water...) but human environments, especially culture and quality of life.

Sustainable ‘use-renewal ‘ and resiliency models • Sometimes demands from

leisure and tourism exceed the carrying capacity of the system

• Sustainable management = any location is left in as good a state as it was before visitors, even enhanced.

• In a sustainable system, successive use will not reoccur until recovery has taken place-

• Recovery rates vary depending on the ecosystem /landscape involved- more fragile less resilient ones eg tundra and high altitude ones will be slower than temperate chalk grasslands or sand dunes.

• Model adapted from Trudgill, Flintoff and Cohen 1998

Where rates of use exceed recovery rates, degradation occurs and a threshold is reached beyond which recovery is not possible

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State or strength of the system

Time

useRecovery

Threshold of normal functioning

Threshold beyond which there is no recovery= collapse

Changing Carrying capacities by positive management

Number of people/use= will reduce either because site becomes degraded or through restrictive management

Time

New higher Saturation or carrying capacity zone raised by targeting site and increasing its resilience/decreasing its use

Capacity not reached

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Stress on area, management

needed Initial threshold for carrying capacity

Categories of recreational capacity

Environmental: influenced by : resistance,- the ability of an ecosystem or

community to absorb use without being disturbed resilience- the speed of recovery, if ever of a

system. Physical or design: If demand exceeds supply,

then the physical capacity is exceeded. Includes the

‘at-one-time’ principle ‘throughput capacity’. Economic: if coping with visitor problems is more

costly than their revenue. Perceptual: too many people concentrated in

one spot at one time may lead to a feeling of over crowding . Some activities are more ‘crowd tolerant’ or ‘crowd sensitive’.

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Measures of significance to audit landscapes

Quantitative• Numerical data is

useful for statistical analysis and for GIS systems

• Examples:• Species frequency

and diversity• Land values• Landscape diversity• Resource value eg

forestry products

Qualitative• Subjective, non-numerical data

includes the perceptions of different groups about an area. Inevitably subjective and biased and hence often considered unreliable.

• Examples: Bipolar and environmental quality indices may be used, together with field sketches and photographs

• However: people choose to visit an area more for their perceptions than empirical knowledge. Increasing use of non-quantitative measures in management

Enquiry Q 3

• Impacts: positive and negative

• Changes in impact over time

• Threats and opportunities in areas of differing economic development

Changing impacts over time

Time

Model of changes in the impacts on rural landscapes by leisure & tourism incorporating Butler’s Life cycle and Doxey’s irritation models

Numbers of visitors

consolidation

Rejuvenation, possibly through rebranding of area

Decline of area

4.Antagonism — covert and overt aggression to visitors

Development

stagnation-

Exploitation

involvement1. Euphoria — delight in contact

2.Apathy — increasing indifference with larger numbers

3.Irritation — concern and annoyance over price rises, crime, rudeness, and cultural rules being broken

Commodification of the rural landscape

• Adding value to the countryside is a key element of new uses of many areas in areas where food production is no longer a priority or where a tourism hot spot develops

• Rebranding may happen spontaneously and gradually as locals adapt to change and offer new attractions to urban populations

• Rebranding may also be part of specific government policies to reimage and rejuvenate areas suffering population decline and lower qualities of life

• The media plays a large part in any valorisation

POSITIVE IMPACTS/OPPORTUNITIES

Economic• Income generator• Employment• Multiplier effect • Diversifies economy• Opportunity for investment,

innovation• Supports existing businesses• Develops local crafts/tradesSocial• Fosters pride of place• Community infrastructure • Cultural exchange• Community spirit• Safeguards customsEnvironment • Key factor in revitalizing natural,

cultural, historical resources• Village renewal & cleaner

countryside• Fosters conservation/

preservation resources• Visitors may act as

‘ambassadors’ about the value of a place

NEGATIVE IMPACTS/THREATSEconomic• Development & marketing cost• Demands on local public services, especially

water and waste• Seasonal and part time employment • low wages• Leakages of profits• External changes an affect visitor numbers

rapidly and make economy unstable– eg Foot & Mouth outbreak of 2001, terrorism

• Increased cost of living to locals eg by second homes

• Land use conflicts- damage & trespass costsSocial• New, often conflicting cultures/ideas• Crime real or perceived • Over crowding of roads, services, congestion• Infringement of privacy• Un equitable share in benefitsEnvironment• Increased visitor numbers may degrade

environment- trampling erosion of footpaths, habitat loss

• Increased pollution: air, noise, litter• Intrusive new developments- loss of

greenfield • Wildlife and domestic stock disturbed

Visitor influences in rural areas

Enquiry Q 4 Management

• Should rural landscapes be managed?

• Attitudes and conflicts of different managers

• Effectiveness of management strategies

• Who is the management for: o locals? o visitors? o Landowners?o The flora and fauna and landscapes of the

natural environment?• What rights should locals have?• To what extent should degraded or damaged

landscapes be restored to original state?• If restoration is involved is there legislation to

restore indigenous species? Why?• Is micro-management the best strategy or a

wider perspective?• Is management short or long term?• Is management reactive or pro-active?• Are there any conflicts between different

managers of any site?

Carrying capacity management

Classifying Management actions Direct

•Often used in most fragile areas or in a potentially dangerous situation eg waterfall, crumbling ruin.oMost time consuming and expensiveoMay need to start with this in short term to protect, and then move to more indirect means as education kicks in oregulations that may entail enforcement,orestricting activities or rationing use

Indirect

•usually more successful in remoter locations

• cheaper

• seeks to affect behaviour through education, information and persuasion.

• Visitors can be informed about the impacts connected with a certain activity, or given information that encourages the use of certain areas over threatened areas.

•physical alterations, such as the redirection of a trail to a more resilient area of a forest, that influence the movement of visitors.

Hard

Paths, fences, vegetation clearance, reseeding…..

Soft

Land use zoning, litter bins, interpretation signs & centres, nature trails……

Setting limits of use In the 1960s and 1970s managers tried to

determine an optimum number for sites from Yosemite to Stonehenge

However, it is almost impossible to set a value Indeed, creating a specific carrying capacity

figure may give false impression of security once established.

Latest research focuses on the concept that all activities cause impacts and these should be limited rather than the pure numbers of people.

This is called the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) . It is used to set standards and monitoring indicators based on management and stakeholder concerns.

When these standards are not met then managers start mitigation to return to an acceptable impact.

By the 1980s in the USA a form of LAC was used by about a quarter of all national parks by the 1980s called The Visitor Experience and Resource Protection Process (VERP). This is largely based on physical capacity.

The concept is now used globally by many managers.

Yosemite by D. Milton

The concept of ‘loved to death’!Tourism and recreation is a powerful tool for

both local and national economic development especially for rural areas with limited opportunities .

This is not just in more developed economies in a post productive phase and with a declining workforce in agriculture, but also in developing economies : Peru, Vietnam.

One of the biggest markets in the future is China, with a vast internal market and now post Olympics an even bigger growth hot spot for foreign travellers.

This is the fundamental paradox of modern tourism: sites often have to be protected and promoted at the same time: hence the term ‘loved to death’!

The carrying capacity is often exceeded, hence’ death’ to aspects of an area: from ecosystem species to indigenous peoples.(top image is of locals near Machu Picchu selling artefacts)

National parks from Yellowstone, the Lake District to Machu Picchu in Peru are classic examples.

Assessing management strategiesCriteria need to be set up to assess the effectiveness of the range of management strategies possible:•The sustainability quadrant or 3 pillars of sustainability models may help as a framework.

Total protection- may be preservation No public access. May have

scientific research

Wildlife parks & reservesMay include ecotourism

Extractive reserves

Exploitation may have token protection

Economic development integrated into conservation