THE IMPACT OF TOURISM ON BARJAC AND VALLON PONT D'ARC

INTRODUCTION

In my coursework I will study two places in the south of France. They are Barjac and Vallon Pont D’arc, before I write my aim and hypothesis I will give you some background information abut the area and write about some tourism theories.

The first town we visited was Barjac this town was very residential and was not to designed to cope with tourists; we knew this because the shops and restaurants along with the notice boards where not in English or any other European language except for French, this was a problem as many tourists cannot understand French. In Barjac there was a car park which was built for only the local residents as there was no parking for very big coaches which was a problem if tourists came by coach even if it was for a rest stop because they wouldn’t be able to park anywhere. Also when we visited the town the tourist information office was closed which said to us that they had not catered for tourists.

The second town we visited was Vallon Pont D’arc this town was very touristy as it had many shops which were selling souvenirs; postcards and other goods tourist like, also Vallon had many excursions which included a ride down the Ardeche River in a kayak also flower pots in Vallon where filled with flowers instead of bark another thing is the car park which is the total opposite of Barjac the one in Vallon was very big catering for more than 400 vehicles which included many spaces for car and coaches to park. Vallon also had a map of the town which was big and very bold it also had a notice board which in a presentable manner.

Seeing as we are talking about tourism we should at least get to know what tourism is about well tourism is the activity of visiting places especially in foreign countries, for pleasure.

Tourism is important because it improves the areas popularity within the world also it can improve the local economy and the countries economy also it would help people to become educated about the country and its culture and language.

The two towns are located in the Ardeche region of France. The Ardeche region is in the south of France.

Tourists visit the area of Vallon Pont D’arc because of the famous arc that was formed by the Ardeche river hence the name Pont D’arc; also some tourists may visit the area because of the climate. The Ardeche is in the south of France which is near the Mediterranean Sea so the climate could also mean that lots of tourists visit the area because of the heat.

There are many theoretical models.

The first is the life cycle of tourist destination this model shows us the stages of development a town or city goes through before becoming a tourist hotspot. The model consists of six factors these are:

Exploration
Involvement
Development
Consolidation
Stagnation
Decline/rejuvenation

The first factor is Exploration; if a country is at its exploration stage it means that it has only attracted a few tourists and that is because of its natural beauty or cultural characteristics. E.g. Chile

The second factor is involvement this is when tourist numbers have increased and the local community gets involved to provide facilities for tourists also the tourist season becomes recognizable and market areas begin to emerge. E.g. Guatemala

The third factor is the Development; this is when large numbers of tourists arrive and control passes to external organisations and there is increased tension between local people and tourists. E.g. Florida

The fourth factor is consolidation; this is when tourism has become a major part of the local economy although rates of visitor growth have stared to level off and some older facilities have been as second rate. E.g. some of the early Mediterranean resorts

The fifth factor is Stagnation; this is when peak numbers of tourists have been reached. The destination or resort is no longer fashionable and turnover of business properties tends to be high E.g. Costa Del Sol

The sixth factor is Decline or Rejuvenation; attractiveness continues to decline, visitors are lost to other resorts or destinations and they become more dependant on day visitors - long-term decline will continue unless action is taken to rejuvenate the area and modernise as a tourist destination. E.g. Black-pool and older coastal resorts.

This model says that Barjac is a town in the involvement stage because the characteristic of it say to me that, that more development is needed because the town needs to become more attractive which it isn’t also the car park has limited spaces so this also tells us something. This model also tells us how sustainable a tourist hotspot is.

The second model is the impact of tourism model this model shows us the Positive points and Negative points of tourism and the impact it has on tourism. Some of the negatives are

Commercialisation of Culture-Religious dances are commercialised and packaged wood carvings are trivialised and there is much production of cheap souvenirs

Westernisations of Culture- Multinational food chains such as McDonalds, KFC, and Coca-Cola have lead countries to destroy the culture and unique quality of a place.

Some of the positives the impact of tourism has are:

Employment- Tourism is intensive and has a multiplier effect. This leads to more money in the local community, demand for more buildings, more hotels, more entertainment and guides etc.

Infrastructure-Although these developments ...

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Commercialisation of Culture-Religious dances are commercialised and packaged wood carvings are trivialised and there is much production of cheap souvenirs

Westernisations of Culture- Multinational food chains such as McDonalds, KFC, and Coca-Cola have lead countries to destroy the culture and unique quality of a place.

Some of the positives the impact of tourism has are:

Employment- Tourism is intensive and has a multiplier effect. This leads to more money in the local community, demand for more buildings, more hotels, more entertainment and guides etc.

Infrastructure-Although these developments are mostly for tourists, there is a spin off affect that may benefit local people. Roads and utilities, such as electricity, gas and water, may benefit the whole community.

The third and final theoretical model is the Factors affecting tourism model this model shows the factors that affect tourism there are 9 factors that affect tourism they are:

Natural Landscape- Mountains, natural history, coasts etc

Climate- Hot, Sunny, dry areas are very attractive to many tourists

Culture- Language, Clothing, Food

Demographic factors –Increasing affluence and leisure time, longer holidays.

Economic factors- Exchange rates, multiplier effect

Technological factors- Improvements in air transport

Political factors-Terrorism

Disease- Outbreaks of malaria, aids and cholera led to a drop in tourism

Sporting events- The world cup, the Olympics etc lead to a rise in tourism

Each of the above things affects tourism in different ways for example sporting events would show an increase in tourism because of the fact that many people in the world like sports and if it’s the world cup then many people would go to support their country, but as the saying goes what goes up must come down that’s where factors like disease and terrorism come in because if there is an outbreak of malaria then not many people would not want to come because they could also catch a disease so that’s where tourism comes down.

Tourism and tourists can bring advantages and disadvantage to an area:

The advantages of tourism are that the popularity and rejuvenation can occur to bring more tourists to the area also the economy of the country would go up.

The disadvantages of tourism are that the area could become overcrowded and could be very uncomfortable to walk or drive. Also the crime rates could go up and would be very dangerous to go out because you could get mugged because you would be mistaken for a tourist.

Key Questions and Hypothesises

Key Question 1: Will the land use in the two towns be different?

Hypothesis 1: The land use in the two towns will be different.

Prediction 1: I predict that the two towns will have different land use and that Vallon will have a greater land use than Barjac in some areas because Barjac will have less land use in the tourist areas and Vallon will have more use in the tourist areas.

Key Question 2: Will traffic and pedestrian numbers in Barjac be lower than in Vallon Pont D’arc?

Hypothesis 2: Traffic and pedestrian numbers in Barjac be lower than in Vallon Pont D’arc.

Prediction 2: I predict that Barjac will be have lower pedestrian and traffic numbers than in vallon because Barjac is quieter and is more residential than Vallon; where as Vallon is touristy so it will have more tourists and more cars and pedestrians

Key Question 3: Will there be a better quality environment in Barjac?

Hypothesis 3: There will be a better quality environment in Barjac.

Prediction 3: I predict that there will be a better quality environment in both places depending on what you like because if you like noise and like to party you would like the quality of environment of Vallon but if you like quit and peace and serenity you would like Barjac.

Key Question 4: Will there be a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over in Barjac than Vallon Pont D’arc?

Hypothesis 4: There will be a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over in Barjac than Vallon Pont D’arc

Prediction 4: I predict that there will be a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over In Barjac than in Vallon Pont D’arc because Vallon is a tourist area and not many 65 year olds like the noise so they would move out to a more quieter area

METHOD

We went to France to the region of Ardeche in the south of France on the 10th of May 2007, while we where there we had to collect various types of data the types of data we had to collect where:

Land use survey, Environmental survey, Pedestrian counts, House prices, Traffic counts, Age survey

I am presenting the above data in a table.

Analysis of Key Question 1

Key Question 1: Will the land use in the two towns be different?

Hypothesis 1: The land use in the two towns will be different.

As you can see from figure 1 I have drawn a bar graph. The graph shows the land use between Barjac and Vallon Pont D’arc using the above categories for example. The tourist retail category shows the amount of shops that sell products that tourists want to buy like souvenirs etc.

The trend of the graph shows a fluctuating pattern The reason my graph does this is because the two towns are very much different from each other seeing as Vallon is a Tourist town and Barjac is a residential town and they both have different needs because Barjac is would need to provide more services than tourist retail and Vallon would be the opposite because it would need to provide more entertainment and leisure facilities as it is what the majority of tourists like to do.

This graph can link in to the factors affecting tourism theory; as it could show the reason for the fluctuation. The reason for the fluctuation could be because of an economical factor as the population of Barjac may not be as well off as the population of Vallon therefore not many people can afford to open tourist retail shops as souvenirs can be quite expensive to purchase.

This does follow my hypothesis as in my hypothesis I said that the land use will be different in the two towns which is correct as the statistics for figure 1 show the significant difference between each category.

This shows that the impact of tourism has a great effect on the land use in these two towns as the tourist town has a positive effect on the tourist retail and entertainment and leisure categories whereas the Domestic retail and services category have a higher rating in Barjac than in Vallon this is because the impact of tourism in Vallon will cause the local government to create more tourism facilities.

Analysis of Key Question 2

Key Question 2: Will traffic and pedestrian numbers in Barjac will be lower than in Vallon Pont D’arc?

Hypothesis 2: Traffic and pedestrian numbers in Barjac will be lower than in Vallon Pont D’arc

Figure 2= Overlay Map for Barjac

Figure 3= Overlay Map for Vallon Pont D’arc

As you can see from figure 2 and figure 3 I have drawn an overlay map for the two sites.

The map shows the amount of people and cars towards the CBD (Central Business District) and outskirts of the two sites; Barjac or Vallon Pont D’arc. To find out how many cars are going in the desired direction you have to measure the width of the arrow using the scale: 1mm= 1 car.

The trend of figure 2 is fluctuating because there are more cars coming towards the outskirts than there are coming toward the CBD the reason for this being a fluctuation is because the amount of people in the CBD is greater than in the outskirts, but saying that having more people in CBD is Normal as it is the centre of the town. But it is still a fluctuation because the numbers have no specific pattern.

The Trend For figure 3 is positive because the number of cars in the CBD is greater than in the outskirts also there are many more people in the CBD than in the outskirts.

This follows my hypothesis because the total cars in Barjac was 41 and in Vallon was 50 this means that Vallon is much more congested than Barjac and has proved half my hypothesis correct. The second half is about pedestrians the total amount of pedestrians for Barjac is 30 pedestrians and for Vallon is 71 so there is a very large difference so I have proved my whole hypothesis correct for Key question 2.

This shows the impact of tourism on Barjac and Vallon Pont D’Arc is positive and has and can have a great effect on the changes the city makes because in my introduction I stated that there wasn’t many car parking spaces in Barjac so if lots more people can come to Barjac the town will have to create space to accumulate the amount of people. Also in Vallon there were 71 people that Is a lot compared to Barjac but still the impact on tourism in Vallon can have a great effect on the surrounding environment e.g. litter can become a problem also chewing gum on the floor can make the town less attractive but also the amount of cars that pedestrians use to come into the town can have an effect on the plants the nature the pollution and carbon emissions so the amount of people in a town can effect have positive and negative impacts on town.

Analysis of Key Question 3

Key Question 3: Will there be a better quality environment in Barjac?

Hypothesis 3: There will be a better quality environment in Barjac

Figure 4: Bi-Polar analysis for Barjac and Vallon Pont D’arc

As you can see from figure 4 I have presented my data using the Bi-polar analysis method.

The Bi-polar analysis shows the environmental assessment on a 1-10 scale 10 being the Highest and 1 being the lowest. We used the following categories of the two towns Barjac and Vallon Pont D’arc the categories we used are: Beautification, litter, cleanliness, accessibility, noise, facilities, signage, and infrastructure.

The lowest rating on the graph is at 4 for noise and litter in Barjac this compared to 7 and 7 for Vallon this shows us that Barjac is more residential than Vallon and also is much cleaner. Having said that I think that the only reason that Barjac is cleaner is because Vallon is a tourist area so tourist will also be very excited and will decide to throw rubbish on the floor instead of looking for a bin, and for the second opinion I think that Vallon has a noise rating of 7 because of the tourists who like to go out in the evening to have a meal or go to a night club.

This follows my hypothesis because Barjac has a better quality environment in the sense of noise, cleanliness and litter.

The ones categories that do not follow my hypothesis is the infrastructure category as Vallon is a tourist hotspot modernization is needed to attract the tourist and because Barjac isn’t a tourist area and more residential the local people probably are happy the way it is. Also another category is the signage category this category is all about the way signs and directions are posted around the town Vallon scored a 8 and Barjac a mere 5 this would be because Barjac is not a tourist destination local would know their way around the town so signage is not needed for Barjac.

This shows that the tourism has had a positive impact on vallon because many more improvements have taken place whereas in Barjac things still remain the same also on the Bi-Polar analysis I took the mean average of the two scores on each category and created a mean average this average shows that both the towns if they where joined together they would have improvements in some areas and not many improvements in other areas for example Barjac in the infrastructure category scored a 8 and Vallon scored a 10 this shows the average shows that Barjac has made a significant improvement in that category.

Analysis of Key Question 4

Key Question 4: Will there be a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over in Barjac than Vallon Pont D’arc?

Hypothesis 4: There will be a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over in Barjac than Vallon Pont D’arc.

As you can see from figures 5 and 6 I have drawn a bar graph to represent the pedestrian count data.

The graph shows the age groups for the men and women that live in the CBD (Central Business District) or the Outskirts of the chosen town either Vallon or Barjac.

The graph follows a negative trend which in relation to my hypothesis because in my hypothesis I stated that there will be more people living in Barjac who are 65 and over but as you can see there are only 4 people in Barjac and 5 people in Vallon so this makes the trend of my graph negative.

The reason my graph does this is because in Barjac we counted 0 people in Barjac for the Outskirts and only 4 people in the CBD but in Vallon e Counted 3 in the CBD and 2 in the outskirts so this is why my graph has a negative trend.

This does not follow my hypothesis. The sites which do not follow my hypothesis are Vallon. The reasons they do not follow my hypothesis is because Vallon is a tourist town so the people we counted could have been tourists so that is why we have a negative trend also we counted no one in Barjac who was over 65 and lived in the outskirts this may be because Barjac has not got the infrastructure to provide buses in a small town for old people so that is why they live in the CBD as all the amenities are nearer.

This shows that the impact of tourism on Barjac and Vallon has had a an impact on the people who are 65 and over this could be because of the busiest town in the region of Ardeche because of the arc so this may have led people out of the town and in to a neighboring village for peace and quiet so this is what may have caused the rise in numbers in Barjac and the extremely low numbers in Vallon.

LINKS BETWEEN MY DATA

Whilst I was typing my analysis I saw links between some of my data but particularly the piece of data that caught my attention was the link between the pedestrian count and the traffic count and the land use survey this is because if there is more cars there is more pedestrians there is more litter this is important because if you think about it you can understand that the busier the area the more cars there is but also the more litter there is this is significant because Vallon is a tourist area and has a high litter count compared to Barjac which has a significantly low one.

Conclusion

Hypothesis 1: The land use in the two towns will be different.

This hypothesis is about the land use between the two towns we categorised them into groups such as: Services, tourist retail, domestic retail, residential, entertainment and leisure. I have accepted this hypothesis because the land use was different in the sense that because Vallon was a tourist town there were more tourist retail shops than domestic retail however in Barjac there was more domestic retail. As you can see the picture on the left was a pharmacy in Barjac this is domestic retail.

Hypothesis 2: Traffic and pedestrian numbers in Barjac be lower than in Vallon Pont D’arc.

This hypothesis says that the traffic numbers in Barjac will be lower than Vallon which is true but also the two sets of data are both relative to each other this is because if you have more cars you have more pedestrians and if you have more pedestrians your more likely to have more cars especially in Vallon. So I have accepted this hypothesis because it is true as Vallon did have more cars and pedestrians than Barjac.

Hypothesis 3: There will be a better quality environment in Barjac.

Hypothesis 3 is whether there is a better quality environment we marked each location using the following Criteria the criteria consisted of: Beautification, Litter, Cleanliness, Accessibility, Noise, Facilities/Amenities, signage, and infrastructure we gave each location for each category a mark out of 10. This hypothesis I will also accept as there were many good things for each location for example in Barjac beautification was higher than infrastructure but in Vallon it was the opposite.

Hypothesis 4: There will be a higher proportion of people aged 65 and over in Barjac than Vallon Pont D’arc

To accomplish this hypothesis we used the Pedestrian count data this was a reliable source as we also put age categories next to the amount of people we counted, for example we counted 1 person who we thought was under 18 going toward the CBD. This information is one I’m going to reject as I don’t think the information is accurate because we didn’t actually ask anyone there age also I think it is not good info use because some of the people e counted could have been visiting instead of actually living in that town.

The spider diagram below shows the limitations we encountered whilst doing the coursework.

Glossary

Tourism- The activity or practice of touring, especially for pleasure.

Tourist- A person who is traveling, especially for pleasure.

Signage- Graphic designs, as symbols, emblems, or words, used especially for identification or as a means of giving directions or warning.

Limitations- problems which stop you from doing things

Local Economy- The economy of a region or the economy of a particular area

Hypothesis- A proposition or set of propositions.