They can also enjoy the beautiful scenery of Lulworth cove, which is an A.O.N.B. (Area of outstanding natural beauty), or go for lovely walks along the main coast, or just to sit and take in the sea life on the pebble beach which is situated inside the cove.
Inside the cove there are a wide range of boats and yachts which are being bought due to the higher standard of living. People are buying these and taking them to places like Lulworth to dock and spend the weekend. The village is the perfect host to these types of people, with its select range of B&B’s, guest homes, caravan site and its one hotel. All of these aspects help to create Lulworth cove in becoming a beautiful Tourist Honey pot site.
Swanage
Swanage is a different type of tourist destination to Lulworth with its population of 10,000 people, but it still manages to draw in the crowds just like Lulworth. This may be because of its location, being near places like Southampton, Poole and Bournemouth and also having several major roads in the area which helps link the south coast together (E.G. the A 31 and the A 350). (See the above map)
It is a popular sea side resort with a delightful promenade running beside its sandy beach which offers traditional attractions such as the Punch and Judy show. The pier, at the southern end of the shore, provides a focal point with it’s wide range of water sports, whilst close at hand, pleasure boats are available throughout the tourist season. It has more places to stay in, than Lulworth has, with its wider range of hotels and caravan sites.
The average overall season in Swanage is approximately 26 weeks from April to October. The number of tourists that can be accommodated is around 240,500 during the season. 300 million British people visit the coast each year, with an average of 10,000 people coming in each week. The average person makes five visits to the coast each year.
From further research I have discovered that Swanage is most people’s choice for a second holiday after their main holiday trip, and because in the summer you can sunbathe and swim in the sea or just relax in the picturesque town. Swanage is bigger, so is almost certain to get more people visiting. As it is larger it has more to offer, in recreational facilities ranging from amusement arcades, unique geological formations which are easily seen along the beautiful coastline, to fishing out on the sea or beach and sailing on their clear unpolluted waters. These sports help bring extra people to come and play in tournaments, matches, courses, clubs or sailing lessons which will help boost the tourist industry.
So as you can see Lulworth and Swanage both fit the criteria for being tourist honey pot destinations; in their contrasting ways, but either way still manage to draw in crowds to help the communities to survive.
B) Identify the potential environment problems that tourism could produce at both Lulworth and Swanage.
With so many tourists flocking their way down to Swanage and Lulworth there are bound to be some environmental issues that are almost certain to affect the two places beautiful scenery by these tourists who don’t realise how they are slowly ruining an A.O.N.B.
Air pollution and traffic problems
This is a big issue these days with all the different forms of transport sending out photochemical smog and hydro chemical smog. With more businesses burning more and more hydro carbons they are creating more localised acid rain which is slowly destroying both of the locations beautiful buildings and scenery.
In Lulworth there is a lack of parking around the town. So when there is a high boom of tourists coming to visit they have little areas to park so they are verge parking in areas which they are not meant to, causing a negative visual impact and traffic congestion around the small winding streets and around the picturesque village.
Flooding and Water pollution
With many boats making their way to Swanage and Lulworth for holidays and day trips they are producing more hydrocarbons and causing some parts of the waters to look like they are not swimable. With Lulworths small sewage facilities, when the place is overcrowded the sewage system reaches its full capacity and causes human waste to spill into the sea.
Around the village and town of these two places they are laid with an impermeable rock (tarmac and concrete) which increases the risk of flooding. This risk is increased because after heavy rain, the water will sit on the surface instead of soaking through back into the water board.
Waste and waste management
Waste is a big issue in the tourist destinations around this and many other countries. With some people not bothering to put their litter into a bin instead they just leave it on the floor, which automatically gives newcomers a negative view to these sensitive tourist areas. This litter also gets blown into the sea or river making people see one of Swanage or Lulworths number 1 tourist attractions as not living up to their expectations for them or their children.
With so many people coming to these tourist destinations, the council has to take the extra rubbish generated to landfill sites around the country. Soon these sites will be full and there will be a shortage of land to bury their waste, leaving rubbish all around and so destroying their claims to be A.O.N.B!
Erosion
Lulworth cove has a main coastal footpath which rambles on for many miles where tourists love to come and enjoy the lush scenery whilst walking. These walkers are slowly causing the path to erode away. These paths are essential because they keep the tourists to a designated pathway, avoiding walking where damage and erosion may take place. However when it gets too wet and muddy people end up walking on the grass next to the path, causing further erosion Walking on the grass can destroy habitats, vegetation and maybe rare Flora. Some tourists even walk too close to the edges of the cliffs causing some of the soft rock to crumble and come loose causing the cliffs to be to unstable to walk along.
However in Swanage there is no evidence of erosion as this is a more urban and built up place. Swanage’s concrete pavements accommodate both the many local people and the tourists.
Visual impact
People who come to visit places like Lulworth see beautiful old cottages and rural villages. However, the county council is under pressure to allow further development because of the demand for homes and second holiday homes. So this is causing everywhere to be over developed increasing the likelihood of a more negative visual impact. However the council are trying to make these new homes fit in with the existing buildings.and so are partially aware of future problems
Another negative visual impact is the amount of cars scattered around the village blocking out the natural beauty.
Noise pollution
Noise pollution from cars and other transport can cause increased aggravation to the local residents and wildlife. So when you come away on holiday, you have to remember that people live there and they don’t want sleepless nights because of the increase in noise pollution.
Wildlife
Wildlife and their habitats are being affected by nearly all of the above problems:
- Waste- some creatures can be suffocated and trapped in people’s waste.
- Traffic, (more roads)- the increasing number of vehicles is killing more creatures.
- Flooding- with the higher rainfall more rivers are bursting their banks causing destruction to water creature’s habitats and even drowning some animals.
So we need to find away of stopping these problems and destroying the numbers of England’s wildlife and their natural habitats.
As you can see from the over crowding of these beautiful tourist destinations it is causing a lot of bother to the local residents and council. We need to find ways of putting an end to all of these threatening problems caused by the tourist industry and leave these areas with their natural beauty so that future generations may enjoy.them as much as we do today.
C) Suggest fieldwork ideas and secondary data that can be used to investigate the above problems.
When we go to Lulworth cove and Swanage we will be doing fieldwork to investigate the environmental problems that occur. Here are some ideas that we can use to investigate these problems.
Air pollution and traffic problems
We could do a car count, which would involve counting the amount of vehicles (caravans, cars etc) and the amount of people in each of these vehicles. We would do this outside of the car parks where most traffic congestion takes place. This will show us whether the two places have enough parking spaces and whether people use all the possible room in their vehicles in order to minimise air pollution, because if there were more cars then the amount of air pollution would increase as well.
Flooding and water pollution
We could test the water for pollutants such as:
- Acid Rain
- Hydrocarbons from the boats, this is a problem especially at Lulworth as of it being a cove so there are no waves to disperce the hydrocarbons.
- Sewage- lab test for bacteria, which could be carried out in the rivers and the sea.
We could test the riverbeds and banks to see the material they are built up of. This would allow us to see whether the rocks are permeable or impermeable,and will give us an idea whether the river will flood. Also we could compare the different approaches both of the two places are taking to prevent flooding.
Waste and Waste management.
To find out whether there is a waste or waste management problem we could do a litter survey. First we would find out where the bins are, how full they are and is there any litter nearby that people could have put in them We will also count how much litter is in a quadrant and scale the amount of litter in each of the quadrants so we can see if Swanage and Lulworth has a litter problem.
We will do this survey on the beach and along the footpath at Lulworth and on the sea front at Swanage.
Compare maps and mapping
For this piece of fieldwork we will be looking at the land use and asking ourselves are the two areas dominated by tourism and are the amenities adequate on both sites. We will do this throughout the whole of Lulworths village and twelve select shops in succession to each other on Swanages seafront.
When we look at the erosion of the cliffs we could go on top of the cliffs and map the land uses that are above the cliff. This will tell us how much the council will have to spend on cliff defences. E.G. if there was a hotel you would have to do more prevention to stop the cliff from collapsing then if it was a farmers field.
Erosion and vegetation survey
We will do this like the litter survey by marking out a few quadrants a few metres apart from the footpath to see how the vegetation and erosion has been affected by tourists.
We could do a transect or a straight line survey, starting from the path and working outward e.g:
-
1st metre there was mud.
-
2nd metre there was grass.
-
3rd metre there was grass and dandy lions.
-
4th metre there was grass and a few insects.
From this drawing of how which shows one way we can measure erosion by using the area of the path and by measuring the drawback to see whether tourists walk on the path or to the side on the grass ruining the vegetation and maybe some small habitats.
When we do these experiments I feel we should investigate the problem of erosion around the main problem areas, which are: Stair hole, the main coastal footpath (especially on the steep gradients) and the main car park where the flow of tourists reach it’s highest. This could be done by seeing how much the paths have been eroded and using points mark each of the footpaths on how badly they have been eroded using a subjective scale.
At Swanage no erosion investigation will take place as they use concrete pavements.
Noise Pollution
For this we could use a noise meter in Lulworths village and around the town in Swanage to see if tourists are ruining the perfect holiday atmospheres in these two beautiful places.
Visual Impact
We can look at the quality of the buildings and the range of EQ (environmental quality) e.g. use of local stone in the village buildings. We will be looking at buildings in Lulworths village and around the town of Swanage to see whether the council are modernising the villages or keeping them beautiful tourist sites.
From doing this fieldwork it will help us discover whether the related environmental problems that Lulworth and Swanage may be suffering from, are caused by the miss use from incoming tourists. Our conclusions and findings may help to solve some of the problems that occur in these tourist honey pot sites.