AIMS
The aims of this piece of coursework are:
- to determine an understanding of what the shops in Chamonix are like.
- To find out what type of people are drawn to theses places and what type of shopping they are intending to do or have done.
- From this study I should able to determine what type of shopping and other type of retailing is on offer in Chamonix.
- I also aim to see whether there is a difference between the type of shops in the centre of town and the shops on the out skirts.
- To find out where the hot and cold spots are and if they have relation to the type of shop.
- To find out whether the CBD is geared towards tourism and if so what type of changes happen throughout the year e.g. winter there is skiing and in summer there is mountain biking. This study will not be in any great depth because I have not visited Chamonix in the winter.
The CBD acts as the main focus for most towns, this is where the centre of a town's business is found together with its commercial activities, forming the core. Large towns such as Chamonix will only have one CBD, larger towns and cities may have more than one CBD. However many large cities may have problems on the the trade front due to competion and on the pollution front due to a greater concentration of traffic. This last factor can cause major problems. I am going to see whether theses factors apply in my environmental study.
Land Uses table
Land use
Chamonix is a town that is geared towards tourisms. This is shown in the land use by the fact that they are a lot of good facilities for holiday makes. Theses included a number of shops and restaurants; there are also hotels on the outskirts of the town that are easily accessible to the ski slopes in the winter. There are a number of other attractions that do not fall into the land use in the town centre theses are things like: the Mar de Glace, la Luge (which is a all year round tobogganing rule) and the surrounding valley which can be used for Skiing and outdoor pursuits. The streets in the town centre are largely pedestrianized. I would expect there to be a lots of bars and restaurants catering for families and large groups. I draw up a table of on, which I draw all of my results onto. I slip the the classifications of land use into Shops with apartments above, bars with apartments above (Bars also includes Restaurants and cafes), Shops, Official services like Lawyers, accountants and tourist office.
Analysis
There does not seem to be a clear pattern between were the shops are and what street they are in. There is an even spread of all types of shops together with bars and restaurants. No one street is the focus for a particular type of outlet. This makes it very hard to pin point a town centre. What the land use map can tell us is that there are a lot of buildings with housing or apartments above them. As you can see from the photos these could be holiday homes. One thing that my map highlighted, which surprised me, was that there were no chalets, this may be down to the fact that they were on the outer limits of the town, outside my study area. This was one of the drawbacks to my study, as it only covered the main central parts of the town, there were a number of places that lay outside the area of my study which obviously played an important part of the life of the town. Another thing that my map high light very clearly is that Chamonix is definitely a tourist town. This is evident in the number of bars, cafes and restaurants, and the fact that there are also five hotels in the centre. My pie chart indicates that apartments over shops and apartments over bars make up the biggest percentage of buildings in the centre, in fact most of the buildings have apartments above them. This came be seen in the photos that I took on my trip. This is because traditionally shop keepers would have lived above their shops, this may still be the case today but looking closely at the building separate access is available. This means that they are probably been converted for independent use.
Pedestrian Count:
Prediction
My prediction for my iso ped is based on the theory of Concentric Land Use but taken in idea pedestrian form. This is that as you get further away from the centre of town the number of people walking the streets will be less. This means that if my prediction is true the busiest place will be the centre of the Chamonix. There is a major clue that the centre will be the most places with pedestrian and this is that large parts of it are pedestrianised. I would also expect the out streets of the town to have less pedestrians on it this is because the type of shops there are shop that will not rely on people walk by and think they will go in, the shop on the outer streets will be shops that high in the shop Hierarchy.
Analysis
The graph above does show clearly how they is a high concentration of pedestrians near the center, but the iso ped shows this a lot better. As you can see on the Iso Ped above they is a clear sphere of influence in the center. This is in direct relationship with the type of shops which are the type that will rely on pacing trade theses included bars, restaurants, café and novelty shops like newsagents. The centre of town where all the pedestrians were mainly situated was pedestrianized and the streets were wide the atmosphere was good and the streets were clean. The cluster of bars and restaurants may have attracted the Pedestrian. On the outer streets there were less people this is because they are less shops and the type of shops that are they don’t rely on pacing trade. However there was a second peak on the iso ped, looking at the map this could be down to the fact that there two ice rinks one out down and a covered on as well. There is also a Lycee (school), College, Library, a gymnasium, sports centre, tennis indoor and out, there is some sort of water sport centre as well, on inspection of the map its seems like this second peak is were the main recreation for the town.
Environmental survey results:
By doing an environmental study I will enable myself to see what sort of place Chamonix really is. I can find whether it is a quiet or a noisy place whether they is good access to shops whether Chamonix has a traffic problem or not. This will give a clear picture of what the environment in Chamonix is like.
Prediction
My prediction for the environmental survey is that the centre of Chamonix will be the lowest scoring place, and as you get further away the score gets higher. The centre is where the main concentration of people will be; therefore the centre will have to look clean and tidy because the people’s impression of Chamonix will be the centre. However the centre of town could be under strange from all of the people that it has to cope with each day. With a high concentration of people comes high litter. To combat this I would expect the town council to have litterbins and road sweepers. I would expect there to be hardily any derelict land, this is because Chamonix is in a good position and land could go for all sorts of development. Traffic flow may pose some problems for me because there is a considerable amount of pedestrian streets were no cars are allowed. This will bring down the score for theses places but this may not be fare. I think that there will be good access to shops from most parts of the town this is down to the fact there a good street system that is signposted well.
Analysis
Looking at my results and my graph it is hard to see a clear pattern. It does not seem that there is much of a relationship between the distance from the centre town (which was site four) and the score on the environmental survey. Sites 2, 4, 6 and 7 are the lowest scoring, 4 and 7 have similar score but there are 500m between them. My prediction has proved itself to right. The centre of town site 4 was among the lowest. However there were a number of places that were near the centre and got high scores this could be down to a number of things, first of all there was structural work going on at site 5 and at site 3 there were road works. I do not think that the choose of site was the best, I think that there should have been more frequently distributed. This would have given me better understanding of what parts of the eastern block were like.
Questionnaire
By conducting a questionnaire I will be able to determine why people come to Chamonix, how often they visit, what the reason for the visit is, there age and one of the most important ones where they come from. Using there origin will allow me to make a map of where people come form, and how far people are prepared to come. I will also be able to find the fraction using the origin of people find out what proportion of people on the street really live in Chamonix.
Prediction
I predict that most of the people that were stopped for questioning will not be local but holidaymakers. This is because the shops and felicities are all devised for the tourist trade, from cafés and hotels to ski runs and biking paths. I would anticipate that people would come from far to visit the area. In general I think that this will be first holiday/encounter with Chamonix for the vast majority of people. Only a small proportion of people will live in or work in Chamonix. I would have thought that the number people living some were else and coming to the town to work will be small (the sleeping population will be low) is because there do not seem to have any industrial or manufacturing plants and the town is an isolated town far away from a large work force. If my prediction is true about the people living to Chamonix then there will be no great labour forces to work in any major industry. The landscape around Chamonix is not suited to that of a big town. Most of the goods that are in the Chamonix will not be producys or pruduce of the local area, this will be down that the fact the surrounding area is devoted to tourism.
Analysis
Studding the pie chart and the bar chart from above there is a significant percentage taken up bar the holiday section. This fits in with my prediction. There is also a considerable amount consumed by Hiking, Biking and day trips, I think that these could come under the heading of holidays with these things coming under holidays this strength my prediction. The number of people working or living in Chamonix was very low this is in line with my prediction. I think that Chamonix is a classic example of a tourist based town this is displayed very well by the results.
