In this study I will investigate the impact of tourism on two honeypot sites in the North York Moors National Park. I will also investigate whether or not tourism in the area is sustainable.

GCSE Geography Coursework

Introduction

Background Information

National Parks are areas of beautiful and relatively wild countryside. In 1949 ten national parks were set up by an act of parliament. They were chosen because of their beauty and popularity. There are currently 12 National Parks in England and Wales. Its own National Park authority manages each National Park, however they don’t own it. The National Parks have lots of different owners, mainly farmers. Also National Trust, Forestry Commission, Water Companies, Ministry of Defence and County Councils own them as well. National Parks are not parks, as the public are not allowed to wander where they like. Also they are not national, as they are not owned by the nation. There are many types of landscapes in the national parks, such as, coastal in Scarborough, upland areas in Brecon Beacons, woodlands in the New Forest and wetlands in the Norfolk Broads. There are many conflicts in the National Parks. An example is that if there is people that want to fish then water skiers will disturb them.

Honeypots are places of attractive scenery, or of historic interest, to which tourists swarm in large numbers. Usually in Honeypots there are lots of problems caused by the tourists. Honeypots are usually busy because of good road access, also because people have more leisure time due to shorter working weeks part time jobs and earlier retirement. Another reason is that people have longer and paid holidays and there are usually lots of campsites and caravan parks near to the Honeypots.

Tourism can be good for the area but it can also be bad. Some advantages are that the tourists will bring in money to the local shops, which in turn creates employment. On the other hand there are some disadvantages, such as; Traffic problems (congestion, speed, volume), path erosion, litter, pollution, vandalism, loss of privacy, tourists trespassing, dogs (not on lead, fouling) and parking problems. So it seems that tourism causes more problems than advantages. In Lealholm the car park is in terrible condition, the cars have worn all of the white lines away, because it is very popular. Some of the cars parked in the car park were from places a long distance away, such as, Glasgow, Chesterfield and Scunthorpe.

Location

The North York Moors are in the North of Yorkshire which is in the North East of England. Danby and Lealholm are situated in the north of the North York Moors. The six-figure grid reference for Danby is (470500). The six-figure grid reference for Lealholm is (476500).

Methodology

To carry out the investigation of tourism and sustainability in these sites I needed both primary and secondary data. I got my secondary data from a park warden who gave me annual figures on visitors, activities tourists do, surveys on the disadvantages, history of the park and other info.

I collected primary data in 3 ways, I did a survey of the car parks to find out where the cars were from and the facilities of the car park, I observed the facilities such as toilets and ...

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Methodology

I collected primary data in 3 ways, I did a survey of the car parks to find out where the cars were from and the facilities of the car park, I observed the facilities such as toilets and bins to see how good they were and if there were enough of them, I also made a questionnaire with which I approached tourists in the area to find things out. The questions I asked were things like, how often do you visit the North York Moors? Whether or not they were staying in a local Bed and Breakfast or hotel, I asked this to see if they were giving any money back to the local area. I also what do you dislike about the North York Moors? I asked this to see if the tourists were aware of the disadvantages of tourism.

I also went up to people who were there and asked them questions about the North York Moors. The questions I asked were:

How long are you staying in the North York Moors? I asked this to see how long they were staying in the North York Moors.
Where is your home area? I asked this to find out how far people had travelled to get here.
How did you travel to Danby/Lealholm? I wanted to know how they were travelling, as it could add to traffic.
What activities are you doing here? I was interested in what sort of things the tourists were getting up to whilst visiting.
How often do you visit the North York Moors? I wondered if they were regular or first time visitors.
Are you staying in a local hotel or bed and breakfast? If they were then they would be giving money back to the local area.
What do you dislike about the North York Moors? I asked this to find out if they realised the problems with the North York Moors.
Do you think there are too many cars here? If they said yes then that would of shown that they believe that the traffic is a problem.

I collected the data on Friday 20th June between 10am and 2pm. Some of the data would have been different according to the day and time. If it was about 12 in the afternoon on a Saturday in summer, then I could expect a lot more tourists and cars. I didn’t go back for another visit but I realise that if I had of went back for another visit then I could have found out some more information when asking my questions because there would have been different people than the first time I visited.

Data Analysis

I have looked at my graphs and I can clearly see that tourism causes problems.

Figure 1 shows that they expect more people to be travelling to Lealholm by car and not much people to arrive by coach. There were lots of places for cars, no spaces for coaches and a few spaces for bikes. This is probably because it is easier to access the area by car.

Figure 2 shows me that they have loads of spaces for cars, a few for coaches and even fewer for bikes. This is probably because they expect a lot of visitors to come to Danby by car and not bike or coach.

I have drawn a pie chart of the tourists that visit the National Park (figure 3). It shows that most people visiting stay inside the park rather than staying outside the park. This means that the tourists will be giving money to the local community by staying in hotels or bed and breakfasts.

When I went to Danby I had a questionnaire (figure 4) that I asked 4 people the questions. I have found out by asking the questions that 3 out of the 4 people were staying for only one day and the other was staying for 2 days. 2 of the people I asked were from Middlesbrough, 1 was from Newcastle and the other was from Whitby. They were all travelling by car, which meant that it would increase the traffic levels and pollution. 3 of the people said that they were there to have a walk around the hills and the other said that they were there to sight see. The 3 who were hiking would contribute to footpath erosion on the hills. One person told me that they liked to visit whenever they could, 2 of them said that they visited once a month and the other once a year. So the person who visits when they can would be contributing more to pollution, traffic and footpath erosion etc… I asked whether or not there was anything they disliked about the North York moors. 2 of them said that the traffic was a problem and 1 said litter, which shows that they need to have more bins. The other person said that there was a problem with dog dirt. So that means that the council need to put up more bins for dog dirt to be put in. 3 out of 4 said that they thought that there were too many cars in the Moors, which shows that they realised the problems that the cars were causing to the North York Moors.

I also did a questionnaire in Lealholm (figure 5). All 4 people I asked were only staying for the day. They all came from different places; the places they came from were Leeds, Middlesbrough, London and Carlisle. One of them got the bus to Lealholm and the others all came by car, so they were all contributing to traffic and pollution problems. I think that most of them came by car because it is easier to travel by car rather than bus because buses only come at certain times. 2 of them were there for a day out, one was there for sight seeing and the other one was there to have a walk. For 1 of the people I asked it was their first time visiting, 2 of the others visited every fortnight and the other person visited yearly. None of them were staying in a local hotel or bed and breakfast. This is because they were all only staying for one day. When I asked them what they disliked about the Moors 2 of them replied with the traffic, one with litter and the last person said nothing. I don’t really believe the person who said there was nothing wrong because there obviously is something wrong, such as traffic, pollution, dog dirt, litter, road kill etc… 3 of them also said that they thought that there was too many cars there which is understandable as the roads were fairly busy compared to it was a small village.

I did an evaluation of the facilities at Danby (figure 6). From it I found out that the bins were very poor as there were only a few of them around in such a busy place which meant that tourists would be more likely just to drop it on the floor. Other than that everything else was reasonably good. The tourist information was excellent as they had a big centre, which was full of leaflets and information to help the tourists. Also the car park was very good as it had loads of spaces there for cars and coaches.

I also did an evaluation of the facilities at Lealholm (figure 7). From my evaluation

I realise that there need to be some more bins made available so that the tourists wont be tempted to drop their rubbish on the floor. The car park was reasonably good but the cars had worn away the lines that divided the spaces so it was very difficult to see where to park. The toilets were good and very easy to access. The tourist information was very hard to find as it was at the train station. But it was nowhere near the centre of the village. Overall I think that the facilities in Danby were better than in Lealholm.

I have come to the conclusion that tourism isn’t fully sustainable in the North York Moors but it could be with just a little bit of extra work. I didn’t notice much places where there was path erosion or where plants had been trampled etc… One bit of erosion I noticed was near the stepping stones in Lealholm, but this isn’t that bad as the river would erode it anyway, but they could just fill the eroded areas up with some new soil or gravel. Because some people like the areas so much they decide to buy a house there but it means that the current residents cant afford to stay there because the house prices will rise. So it means that the locals will have to move to more affordable accommodation. This could be improved by only allowing certain people to move into the local area, or they could help out the people who had been living there for a very long time. One of the biggest problems is traffic. One way of reducing the traffic would be to introduce traffic restrictions or congestion charges. To stop people from dropping as much litter they could put up more bins and make them more noticeable so that people see them and put their rubbish straight in. They could also introduce fines and street wardens to make sure nobody drops litter.

Evaluation

The data I collected from the North York Moors could be improved in quite a few ways. For example if I had asked more people then it would have meant that I would have gotten a wider range of results to the questions I asked. I could have asked more people by revisiting the North York Moors on another occasion. Also depending on what day it was, the more people would be there. If it was on a Saturday or Sunday then there would be more people than on a weekday. I could have also gone back in the summer because if the weather was warm then I could expect more people to be there enjoying it. I could also have gone to other places in the North York Moors as I only went to Danby and Lealholm. If I’d of been to other places then I will have been able to ask different people and get a different set of answers to my questionnaire.

Another way I could of collected more data would have been to ask more questions, such as did they bring their own food or do you think the facilities need to be improved etc… These questions would of helped me as it would let me know whether or not the people were buying food locally or bringing their own. It would also let me know whether or not the public thought the North York Moors had good enough facilities.

Some of the data that I collected could have been unreliable because some people may have guessed their answers if they didn’t really know how to answer properly, they will have guessed it because they realised that I was doing coursework and they knew that it would help me if they gave me an answer. Some people that I asked may have even lied to me, for example if the person was in a hurry then I think that they might lie to me to get rid of me as quickly as possible. I could also have made mistakes when collecting my data, such as I may have misheard someone’s answer to my question.

Whilst in the North York Moors I could of carried out some more types of data collection. I could of looked at footpath erosion caused by tourism, I could of done this by looking at a path then coming back in a week or so to see how much erosion had been caused during the time I had been away. I could also have done a survey of how many cars drove through in a certain length of time, this would of give me some idea of how much pollution is caused by traffic.