Hypothesis one - Stratford has a larger sphere of influence than Evesham.

Stratford has a larger sphere of influence; consequently it receives more tourists which cause problems to the locals and the area. The area becomes congested as many tourists come to visit which causes problems for the locals who have to travel on the same roads to get to work. Car parks are filled up quickly by tourists leaving little or no space for locals. Hotels open and taken up space, they affect the look of the area. The food and property prices rise with tourism as tourists are willing to pay more for food when they are out because it is just a one off occasion, for the locals however the food is too expensive to buy every day. The property is more sought after so the cost of rent and mortgages goes up. The parks are filled with tourists and teenagers and children have less space to play football or other sports. Old people are discouraged from walking on the streets as they are too busy, there are no clubs for them because bingo clubs do not appeal to tourists as they can go to clubs anywhere. Locally owned fish and chip bars and small shops will be forced to move as the rent increases and replaced with McDonalds and large stores selling comparative goods. More waste is created as there are more people, the waste has to be transported to be disposed of this again adds to congestion. If the waste is placed into landfill it can contaminate water sources. Incinerating the waste adds carbon dioxide to the air which, being a greenhouse gas, contributes to global warming.

To solve the problem of congestion the council could introduce a park and ride system like used in Worcester, this is where tourists park their vehicles on a guarded car park that is out of town and then drive into town on a bus. Tourists are encouraged to use this as it is cheaper than in-town parking. Also touring companies should arrange visits to Stratford so the tourists travel by coach like Thompsons travel which was used to take people to the millennium dome. Local people should be encouraged by the council with grants to rent out spare rooms for tourists, this way the locals can make back the money they lose on the expensive rent and there becomes lessened for large hotels which ruin the scenery. Special parks for locals only should be opened out of the way of tourist access also the council should open clubs for old people that are built near bungalows and are exclusively for local people. The council should encourage companies like Tesco and Safeway to build out of town supermarkets which are out of the way of the tourists but allow local to travel less also a bus service to the stores should be made.

Certain limitations of collecting the results may have caused less accuracy. Collecting 20 samples from each area was not enough to get an accurate idea of who was visiting and why one hundred samples would have been more accurate as it would be interviewing 0.5% of the population as taking 20 from each area is only 0.1%. If I had more time and a team of people interviewing I could have done this. The age range also could have been more specific, most people from Stratford fitted into the age range “61+” which doesn’t tell us the exact ages of those people. I only conducted the questionnaire on one day for each place between 11.30am and 2.15pm to get a better idea of the types of people in the areas I should have conducted the questionnaire earlier; before people go to school or work, also the results may have differed on a weekend when there are more local people shopping, despite this I think that my results were enough on which to base a conclusion.