Mountain and rural Flashcards
Mountains in the present era are…
- Places of fascination and have a growing range of tourism activities
- Mountain enclaves exhibit quite different features from most other destinations
- The significance of mountain tourism development has been recognised by
Ski Resorts
- Most intrusive form of mountain development
- Require large areas for infrastructure
- Supporting urban areas to house large numbers of guests
- Cairngorm ski region in Scotland
- Vegetation removal led to flash flooding
- Reported damage to ecosystem by heavy equipment
- Fragmentation of habitat by ski runs
- Seasonality extends impacts into summer months • Mountain biking etc.
Planning for Mountain Tourism
- Impacts – Tourism can be intrusive industry on landscape and its resources
- Scale of tourism developments – Impact on environment and mountain communities
- Long-term planning – Short term economic needs often prioritised at expense of long term sustainable development
- Mountain communities traditions and culture
- Sensitive environments
Challenges for Mountain Tourism
• Ecological Sustainability
– Role in the Global Water Cycle
– Headwaters of all of the worlds major river systems
– Impact that inappropriate development can have can flow throughout the remainder of the ecosystem
– Fragility of mountain ecosystems
• Political Sustainability
– Geographic, cultural and biological boundaries create management issues increasing potential for conflict across borders
• Economic Sustainability
– Viability of firms operating in mountain resorts
– Viability of communities living in mountain regions
– Tensions between economic and environmental sustainability
– Without environmental sustainability long term economic sustainability is problematic
• Socio-cultural Sustainability
– Preservation of traditional cultures
– Improvement to quality of life
– Demolition of traditional buildings / replaced.
Challenges for Mountain Tourism
• Development policies
– Deforestation, introduction of invasive species, loss of habitat, erosion
• Impacts of recreation and nature based tourism
– Loss of pristine wilderness with lack of human occupation
• Carrying capacity exceeded
– Hardening, introduction of non-endemic species
– Monitoring possible in developed countries
• Maintain ecological integrity of mountain areas
Challenge - Climate change
- Absence of snow
- Short Winter season
- Winter sports
- Winter Olympic Games
Challenge - Urbanization
- Development versus preservation
- Sustainability
- Employment
- Pollution
What is Rural Tourism?
• No agreed definition of what constitutes rural tourism
– Geographical versus cultural definitions
– Political concepts
– Structured by activities
– Economic inland development
– Tourism that takes place in the countryside – Used interchangeably with other terms such as ecotourism, green tourism or nature based tourism – Sociological definitions of the meanings for ‘rurality
Forms of Tourism in rural areas
- Agritourism (Tourism linked to Agriculture)
- Green Tourism (Environmentally friendly)
- Ecotourism (Promotes ecosystem conservation)
Economic land use and Traditional Social Structures
- Traditional agrarian and forestry industries
- Agricultural decline / Tourism as economic alternative industry.
- Reconstruction of the countryside by Rural Tourism
- Countryside retains the authentic values
- Rural life as touristic attraction
- Rurality scales determines cultural significance
The cultural significance of the countryside
- Abstract symbolic concept
- Open space / Fresh air / Peace / Quite
- Mythical status as a simpler
- Nostalgic past
- It is a way to escape from urban life: “Refuge from the modernity”
- Combination of Nature and Culture
Principles for countryside tourism
- Enjoyment
- Development
- Design
- Rural economy
- Conservation
- Marketing
