1. 6GEO4 Unit 6 Consuming the Rural Landscape-Leisure and Tourism

2. What is this option about?
Synoptic context
People
Place
Power
Who is involved?
How?
Why?
Where?
When?
Who is responsible?
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.

3. CONTENTS Growth of leisure & tourism landscapes
Significance and fragility
Impacts
Management Issues
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4. What is leisure, tourism & recreation?
Non -Local recreation
Local recreation
Business & personal travel
LEISURE-non working time
TOURISM
Business and recreational travel

5. The option summarised Leisure /tourism Types :active / passive
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

6. Enquiry Q 1 Growth of leisure + tourism landscapes
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
The rise of leisure tourism and pleasure periphery
Range of rural landscapes affected
Attitudes of players involved
Conflicts

7. 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 remoteness
Is 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

8. 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 

9. 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 NPA
Natural England
May provide funding / legislation to promote diversification, development etc. Likely to have a social or economic benefits
IGOs
UNESCO
World 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

10. Ecological & physical value
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
Ecological & physical value
Landscape attributes, condition & content including resources
Socio-cultural value
Landscape contributions to physical & mental health & education
Economic value
Monetary value –land price

11. 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.
Factors affecting Fragility= vulnerability to disturbance
Stability of landscape + ecosystems
Type of pressure
Scale of pressure

12. 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
use
Recovery
State or strength of the system
Threshold of normal functioning
Threshold beyond which there is no recovery= collapse
Time
Where rates of use exceed recovery rates, degradation occurs and a threshold is reached beyond which recovery is not possible

13. Changing Carrying capacities by positive management
Capacity
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
Stress on area, management needed
Initial threshold for carrying capacity

14. 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’.

15. Measures of significance to audit landscapes
Quantitative
Qualitative
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
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

16. Impacts: positive and negative Changes in impact over time
Enquiry Q 3
Impacts: positive and negative
Changes in impact over time
Threats and opportunities in areas of differing economic development
Positive
Wildlife conservation
Landscape restoration
Conservation of rural settlement sites
Negative
Erosion
Habitat disturbance
Pollution
Local settlements disturbance

17. Changing impacts over time
Numbers of visitors
Rejuvenation, possibly through rebranding of area
stagnation-
4.Antagonism — covert and overt aggression to visitors
consolidation
3.Irritation — concern and annoyance over price rises, crime, rudeness, and cultural rules being broken
Decline of area
2.Apathy — increasing indifference with larger numbers
Development
involvement
1. Euphoria — delight in contact
Exploitation
Time
Model of changes in the impacts on rural landscapes by leisure & tourism incorporating Butler’s Life cycle and Doxey’s irritation models

18. 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
Regional/Local eg farmgate sales for specialised processed goods or country parks outside settlements
eg Harry Potter + Alnwick in Northumberland , Alton Towers
In UK but global attraction
International eg Lord of the Rings: Kaitoke regional Park New Zealand

19. Visitor influences in rural areas
POSITIVE IMPACTS/OPPORTUNITIES
Economic
Income generator
Employment
Multiplier effect
Diversifies economy
Opportunity for investment, innovation
Supports existing businesses
Develops local crafts/trades
Social
Fosters pride of place
Community infrastructure
Cultural exchange
Community spirit
Safeguards customs
Environment
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/THREATS
Economic
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 costs
Social
New, often conflicting cultures/ideas
Crime real or perceived
Over crowding of roads, services, congestion
Infringement of privacy
Un equitable share in benefits
Environment
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

20. Should rural landscapes be managed?
Enquiry Q 4 Management
Who is the management for:
locals?
visitors?
Landowners?
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?
Should rural landscapes be managed?
Attitudes and conflicts of different managers
Effectiveness of management strategies

21. Carrying capacity management
Carrying Capacity exceeded in an area
Reduce Capacity
Reduce attractions Discourage access eg smaller carpark….. Reduce on site provision eg charging….
Alternative Sites
Promote new sites eg by signing, publicity, traffic management, provide new facilities eg trails……..
Raise Capacity
Modify distribution of people -Concentrate or Disperse eg by car parks, paths, barriers, Interpretation boards, new trails……
Manage ecosystems eg resistant flora, drainage, turfing……
Improve access by new paths, surfacing, drainage..

22. Classifying Management actions
Direct
Often used in most fragile areas or in a potentially dangerous situation eg waterfall, crumbling ruin.
Most time consuming and expensive
May need to start with this in short term to protect, and then move to more indirect means as education kicks in
regulations that may entail enforcement,
restricting 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……

23. 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

24. 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.

25. Assessing management strategies
Criteria 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 & reserves
May include ecotourism
Economic viability and futurity
Ecosystem health
Community involvement
Social equity
Extractive reserves
Economic development integrated into conservation
Exploitation may have token protection