Download - Development of Tourism in the European Northern Periphery

8/2/2019 Development of Tourism in the European Northern Periphery

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DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN THE

EUROPEAN NORTHERN PERIPHERY

Dr Jan Mosedale

WHAT IS PERIPHERY???

Merriam-Websters Dictionary:the outward bounds of something asdistinguished from its internal regions or

center

Brown and Hall (2000: 1) add a socialcomponent to the term periphery: to beperipheral is to be marginalised, to lackpower and influence and it therefore carriessocial, political and economic implications


Geographic isolation (distance, poor access to and

from markets)

Economic marginalisation (lack of resources,

decline of traditional industries)

Lack of infrastructure

Reliance on imports -> economic leakage

Generally a rural setting

Low and declining (or ageing) population

Can anyone give me an example of a

peripheral community in the UK?


Despite the previous list of characteristics that

define periphery, it is a subjective concept. It

depends on ones perception of place.


Paradoxes of peripheries:

1. Isolation and remoteness (two key

characteristics of the periphery) can be

desirable to some tourists.Nature, Heritage, slower pace of life, being away from

the grid

In tourism, it is the very symptoms of peripherality

(Brown and Hall, 2000: 3) that have become

desirable and drive new economic growth and social

development.


Paradoxes of peripheries:

2. If tourism is not planned or managed

adequately, it might just destroy the

remoteness or tradition that the early

tourists were coming for -> change in

tourism product.


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1. GEOGRAPHICALLY REMOTE

FROM MASS MARKETS

Spatial distance

Communicative distance

Outside of the day-trip zone of major population

centres

2. LACK OF EFFECTIVE ECONOMICAND POLITICAL CONTROL OVER MAJOR

DECISIONS THAT AFFECT WELL-BEING

Issues of economic restructuring

Globalisation

Political institutions elsewhere

3. RELATIVELY WEAK INTERNAL

ECONOMIC LINKAGES

High degree of importation

Inter-firm relations often weak within region

Often industries based on resource extraction /

natural resources

4. RELATIVELY WEAK INTERNAL

COMMUNICATION & TRANSPORT

LINKAGES

Links often from periphery to core rather than

between peripheries

Intra-firm relations

5. OFTEN HIGH AESTHETIC /

NATURAL AMENITY VALUES

Sign of lack of development or even economic

restructuring

Relationship to high biophysical values of

naturalness and remoteness - wilderness

Cultural heritage is often the thing which hasnt

changed because there wasnt the money to

update

6. MIGRATION OUTFLOWS

Younger people for education and employment

opportunities

Families with respect to better schooling and

employment opportunities

Some retirement outmigration

BUT for a few peripheral locations there is

migration inflow - amenity, seasonal, retirement

and lifestyle migration


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7. COMPARATIVE LACK OF

INNOVATION

Argued by Botterill et al. (1997) BUT this point is

highly debatable

High rates of innovation may be one of the few

points of comparative competitive advantage -

but this is related to what underlies the capacity

to innovate in terms of intellectual and social

cultural

8. INTERVENTIONIST ROLE OF LOCAL,

NATIONAL & SUPRANATIONAL STATE

Occurs because of economic difficulties of the

periphery

It is very hard for governments to refuse to assist

peripheral regions in some way - national myths

of the rural and peripheral

Significance of changing political philosophies

regarding the role of the state - move from the

welfare to the entrepreneurial/neo-liberal state

BUT CAN PERIPHERAL PLACES

SUCCEED WITH TOURISM?

Some places obviously are better positioned than

others for reasons of accessibility as well as

capital - economic, intellectual and social

But what are we wanting in economic terms

People travelling through?

People stopping?

People stopping and spending?

People stopping/staying longer and therefore

spending more?

THE NORTHERN PERIPHERY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtLseO3U9Oo

SCANDINAVIA

Huge land areas with a relatively smallpopulation

Many of the typical Scandinavian features aresituated in Norway: combination of sea andmountains.

North Cape and Lofoten Islands offer fishing,whale watching and other nature-based activities


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PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH

TOURISM IN THE NORTHERN

PERIPHERY

Accessibility especially outside of the core region of Scandinavia

(Denmark is the only Scandinavian country with a land link to

western Europe; the rest are reliant on air and sea links)

High cost of living = expensive areas to visit

Short summer season due to climate (lasts from late June to the

middle of August resulting in many destinations relying on imported

seasonal foreign labour, especially from Southern and Eastern

Europe, resulting in leakage of profits)

Winter is too extreme, particularly in thenorthern part of the region, to enable masswinter sports tourism

Nothing geographically comparable to theAlps to enable mass downhillski/snowboarding tourism

Lack of sunshine in the winter months inthe most northern parts of Scandinavia

Potential growth types of tourism (i.e.,wilderness tourism) cannot be majorgenerators of tourists if they are to survive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUiR7fhIIBI

COMPARING THE NORTHERN EUROPEAN

PERIPHERY WITH DEFINITIONS OF

PERIPHERY

Yes, it is geographically remote

Yes, it is dominated by rural/wilderness areas

Yes, it has relatively small and highly

distributed populations

No, it is not always dependent on imports and is,

in actual fact in many ways economically

independent with access to abundant natural

resources (especially Norway)

No, standards of living in the northern periphery

are amongst some of the highest in the world


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THE PERIPHERY OF THE

NORTHERN EUROPEAN PERIPHERY

Yes, it is geographically remote

Yes, it is dominated by rural/wilderness areas

Yes, it has relatively small and highly distributed populations

Yes, it is dependent on imports

Whilst in global terms living standards are high they are lower

than in the rest of Scandinavia and are heavily state subsidised

SAMI: THE PEOPLEPOTENTIAL OF TOURISM IN THE

NORTHERN PERIPHERY

Winter sports

Wilderness/eco/adventure tourism

Heritage tourism

Urban and cultural tourism

Health tourism

Santa Claus

Legoland

Northern Lights

Land of the midnight sun

TOURISM IN THE EUROPEAN

NORTHERN PERIPHERY

Dominated by domestic (excluding Denmark)

and intra-regional tourism (sun and sports)

skiing in the winter and a reverse flow to the coast

in the summer

Main type of tourism is VFR

Main mode of transport for tourism is the

private car

Second home tourism very popular

The capitals of each country tend to be the

dominant tourism destination for all seasons

Core regions of Scandinavia tend to gain most from

tourism

No passport or visa requirements historically for

cross border travel

Accurate statistics for tourism in this region are

very hard to calculate

Traditionally a source rather than a destination of

international tourism


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The aims of developing tourism in the Europeannorthern periphery in general and the peripheral

segment of the region in particular are to:

Maintain settlement patterns (a long term

governmental policy)

Ensure long-term opportunities for employment

and services

SCANDINAVIANS AS A SOURCE OF

INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS

As a result of the high standards of living andliberal governments the Nordic countries

represent a lucrative, though relatively small,

market for the international tourism industry

Historically the prime destinations for these

tourists is the southwest of Europe, particularly

Spain

Overall, tourism has a significant negative

impact on the Scandinavian economies

SUGGESTED READINGS

Boniface, B. & Cooper, C. 2005. Worldwide

destinations casebook: the geography of travel and

tourism. Elsevier: Amsterdam. Case 15.

Horner, S. & Swarbrooke, J. 2004. International

cases in tourism management. Elsevier:

Amsterdam. Case Study 10

Brown, F. and Hall, D. (2000) Introduction: theparadox of peripherality. In: F. Brown and D.

Hall (eds) Tourism in peripheral areas. Clevedon:

Channel View Publications. pp. 1-6.

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