Landscapes of the world

Importance for tourism

 Contents
• The concept of landscapes
• Preferences of tourists
• Images of landscapes
• Film tourism and landscapes
• Wildlife tourism
• Landscapes under threat
• Future of changing landscapes
 Landscapes
• The word landscape is from the Dutch
“landschap” meaning a sheaf, a patch of
cultivated ground
• Landscape = cultivated = not wilderness?
• From landscape art to tourist gaze
• Other scapes: seascapes, riverscapes,
cityscapes, etc.
 What forms a landscape?
Landform and
geology

Presence of Natural vegetation

man and animals
 From cultural to natural
landscapes

Cultural Natural

Urban/cityscapes Rural Wilderness

high Human intervention low
 Wilderness
• Wilderness is generally
defined as a natural
environment on Earth that has
not been significantly
modified by human activity.
• Wilderness is deeply valued
for cultural, spiritual, moral,
and aesthetic reasons.
• How much of Earth’s surface
is still “wilderness”?
• 46%
 From wilderness to National Parks

• First protection of wilderness: English Kings,

to protect hunting grounds
• Urbanisation & industrialisation: more value
for nature protection
• First National Park: Yellowstone, 1872 USA
• Conservation versus protection: “Proper use
of nature” versus “protection of nature from
use”
 What is an attractive landscape?
• Enlightment: back to nature, what was seen
as beautiful (art)
• Global dominance of Northern Europe:
exported aesthetic inscriptions
• UNESCO: universal ideas about what is
beautiful
Art, landscapes and tourism
 What landscapes do tourists prefer?
• Nature, forest, varied landscape
• Wild landscapes with mountains
and water
• High relief differences
• Landscapes with a special value
(by art, film, TV)
• Heritage landscapes
• Landscapes with animals
 World’s most popular landscapes
• Great Barrier Reef
• Mount Everest
• Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe
• Angel Falls, Venezuela
• Niagara Falls, USA/Canada
• Northern Lights
• Amazon river and rainforest
• …
 Status of landscapes
• Important aspect in tourism: being seen in
(famous) landscape
• Doing, being active, being part of it
• Visitors seek to “own” landscape
 Tourist gaze
• Tourists don’t gaze but glimpse
• Landscape = photo opportunity
• Deep meaning or exercise of ego?
• Backpacking or just watching?
Experiencing famous landscapes
 Landscapes are cultural
constructions
• Images of landscapes attract tourists
• A landscape is a cultural construction
• Artistic representations, films, TV
programmes, media exposure of landscapes
generate tourism
• A landscape destination is created for
tourism consumption
 Film & TV tourism
• Places, and images of places, are fundamental in
tourism
• Experiencing a film is going into a fantasy world
• Going on holiday, tourists also enter a world between
imagined and real culture and places being visited
• Successfull film can lead to increased visitor numbers
• Marketing can change visitor profile
 Experience of film tourists
• Film tourists consume familiar signs and
symbols in film
• Real landscape is covered with several new
layers of meaning for the consumption of film
tourists
• Re-enacting parts of the film
Film locations boost UK tourism
“British tourism has enjoyed a huge boost
from a rise in visits to film and TV show
locations, says a report.”

“Film and tourism bodies identified increased

visits to the settings of productions
including The Da Vinci Code and Gosford
Park and TV's Balamory.”
 Film locations: Tobermory
• Isle of Mull, Tobermory: location for pre-
school children’s TV programme Balamory

• The village of Tobermory experienced a 40

per cent rise in visitors - an increase of
160,000. The series is thought to be
contributing £5 million a year to the local
economy.
Balamory or Tobermory?
 From film to tourism product
• Harry Potter films: Alnwick Castle, Ben
Nevis, Scotland, Oxford University, etc.
• The Harry Potter films led to a 120%
rise in visitors to Northumberland's
Alnwick Castle, and had brought about
£9m worth of tourism to the region.
• British films and TV are “brochures” for
tourism
 Landscapes and wildlife
• Value of wildlife
• Relationship human beings and wildlife
• Viewing platforms
• How important is it to know there is wildlife?
• How important is it to encounter wildlife?
 Wildlife tourism
• Worldwide, the wildlife tourism industry is
increasing by up to 12% year on year
(November 2007)
• For instance in Scotland alone there are between
250 and 300 wildlife tourism operators.
• Offering everything from whale and dolphin
spotting to bushcraft and farm projects, they
generate around £200m a year for the Scottish
economy.
 Popular wildlife destinations
• National Parks Africa • Alaska, USA
• Nature reserves India • Amazon, South America
• Great Barrier Reef & • Galapolos Islands,
Outback, Australia Ecuador
• Sahara, Africa • Grand Canyon, USA
• Canadian Rockies, Canada • Hawaii, USA
 Climate change
• Global Warming is accelerating
• Expected global average temperature
expected to increase between 1.4 and 5.8
degrees this century
• Increase in rainfall 3-10% by 2050
• Increase in droughts
• 4-10 cm increase in sealevel per decade
 Effect on tourism in Alpes
• Shorter skiing season
• Greater demand for higher altitude skiing
resorts
• Extended season for non-skiing activities
• Less demand for skiing?
 Effect on tropical islands
Tropical islands
• Sea level rises are critical
• Storm frequency increasing
• Coral bleaching
• Reef damaging
• New tropical diseases
 Landscapes under threat
• Cancun, Mexico: threatened by sealevel rise
 Melting glacier Kilimanjaro

Estimated to be gone by 2012

 Mount Kilimanjaro
• The tallest mountain of Africa lost 82% of
its ice cover in the last 80 years
• Africa’s two highest mountains — Mount
Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya — will lose
their ice cover within 25 to 50 years if
deforestation and carbon emissions are not
stopped, says the United Nations
Environment Program.
• Less water => droughts
 European Union policy
on climate change
• “Climate change is already happening and
represents one of the greatest environmental,
social and economic threats facing the planet. The
European Union is committed to working
constructively for a global agreement to control
climate change, and is leading the way by taking
ambitious action of its own.”
• Expected water battles, for instance between
agriculture and tourism
 Protection of landscapes

• No attractive environment = no tourism

• The environment is the foundation of
tourism industry
• Tourism requires the protection of the
scenic and historical heritage of
destination areas.
 Protection of wildlife
Example: Polar Bears: Protected, but Not Safe!

• In May 2008, the Bush Administration listed the polar

bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act
(ESA).

• Is it too late? Arctic sea ice is receding, and scientific

studies by the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) estimated
some 30% decline in sea ice by mid-century.

• A study by the USGS projected a two-thirds decline in

the world's polar bear population — currently standing at
up to 25,000 — by 2050.
How could landscapes be protected?

• United Nations and International Union for

Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (IUCN)
• World Heritage Sites (1972)
• National Parks
• Protected landscapes
• International National Parks
 What can we do?
• Carbon emmissions: renewable energy
• Creative and new ideas for tourism
• Small steps make great contribution
• Turn credit crisis into positive movement
• Examples: improve cycling possibilities (=
cheaper means of transport), invest in solar
powered transportation…
 Future of world landscapes
• Environment is prime resource for tourism
• Threats by tourism development, climate
change and increased scarcity of resources
• Protection and conservation is mission for
tourism industry
• Challenges for the future