The limitations that I encountered while doing the survey were that as I did not have enough time I could not cover the whole area and for that reason I had to do a transect. For that reason I might not be able to draw a very precise conclusion. This data will help me answer QFI 3.
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Pedestrian count along a transect. –
I chose three different locations along the transect and did a pedestrian count. I simply stood at the side of the road and count the number of people who passed me (walking both ways) for one minute. I spent a minute counting people going one way and then another minute counting people going the other way. I thought about where I did this because I am trying to prove that some places are more popular than others. I also selected a sunny day when more people might have been walking. The limitations of this data collection method are that I did not have enough time to count the pedestrians in the whole area at different times during the week and day and that might lead me to a not very exact conclusion. Also during rainy periods there might be less people walking and that would affect the impact on the environment, but as I did not have enough time I could not research that factor.
This data will help me answer QFI 4.
- Traffic count at key sites. –
This is similar to the pedestrian count – I stood at the same three locations as I did for the pedestrian count and recorded the numbers of cars going past me in both directions. Again I am trying to prove that some sights have more traffic as they are popular for certain reasons. I counted at all 3 locations in the same day within 30minutes of each count. I counted during normal working hours.
The limitations I had for this data collection method are that again as I did not have enough time I could not count the vehicles coming in and out of the whole area and that might give me the wrong conclusion. Also I didn’t have the time to count vehicles in different days and times and so the results might be a bit anomalous.
This will help me answer QFI 4.
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Environmental Survey. –
I chose five locations to do an environmental survey. I did my first at the Tourist office. I simply marked each location for its environmental quality - +2 for excellent and –2 for really bad. I have attached a blank environmental survey as Fig. 4 in the project. The limitations for this data were that I could not go around every street of the town and asses the environmental quality so I had to do it along a transect. As usually towns and cities have a variety of regions the quality might have changed in different areas, but as I did not have enough time my results only show the transect route.
This will help me answer QFI 4
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Questionnaire –
I asked 20 people coming out of some tourist shops the questions on the questionnaire sheet. There is a clean copy of my questionnaire on page . By this I can show that a variety of different people come to Aviemore from a variety of different places. This also shows details like: why they come, how long for, where they come from and etc. I asked random people however I was limited as the people I asked were mostly younger tourists who might have different views and ideas to older locals of the area. For that reason my data might not be very precise.
This will me with QFI 1,2,4 and the questionnaire is attached as Fig.5
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Secondary data collection –
I will use secondary data to back up and verify my findings and conclusions. I can get this from the internet, books and the tourist information centre.
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Photos –
I used a disposable camera to take pictures and scanned them into my project. This is so that I have proof of the town and can show landmarks, shops etc. this can be important because it can often show what type of town it is.
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Mapping of services using secondary data. –
I used the internet to get maps and ariel shots of Aviemore. This is a good source because it is accurate, new and I can insert them straight into the project.
I did not have any limitations with the secondary data as I did not collected myself and so I assume that it is of high quality.
What are the attractions of Aviemore?
This will enable me to see why people are willing to travel large distances to visit this little town.
There are many reasons for people to visit Aviemore, for example, they visit for many outdoor pursuit trips, as it is a good base camp for excursions to the mountains. There are many facilities for visiting mountaineers, there are hostels, and these give a cheep option for accommodation.
People also visit this part of the country to escape the hustle and bustle of the cities and to get some fresh air. In Aviemore there is also more luxurious accommodation to be found in places such as the Hilton. The people that stay in these places are the sort of people who will go for long walks in Aviemore’s beautiful countryside. Although, it isn’t just the rich that do this and as it turns out that is what most people go for. At night there are good restaurants open, which have good food. This is a potential attraction in its self.
There are not really any spectacular man made features or sculptures in Aviemore that people come to see. Even if there is then it is totally out done by the local surroundings.
It is now easier to get to Aviemore because over the past few years they have been improving the roads/railway and thus improving access.
This will help Aviemore to advance from a small town in a mountain range into a nationally renowned town that the people love.
My questionnaires show why people come to Aviemore. Look at the last page for a blank questionnaire.
What is the land use of Aviemore?
The land use of Aviemore has changed so much in the last 20 years. If you hadn’t seen it develop and you came back you wouldn’t be able to recognize it.
Aviemore Before:
A picture across the landscape from Nethy View
Aviemore was just fields. Farmers live and cultivated the land there. It had rich soil, plenty of space and was a great looking little area. There was a market in the village where farmers would be able trade between themselves. It then grew and people would come to buy goods from the market. Access was going to be important, therefore, a train station was built. This attracted different people because they wanted to experience country life by going to markets etc. and when there was convenient accessibility they started to like it. It had a knock on effect. People then discovered that it was good for other things such as skiing.
Aviemore Now:
People saw this opportunity. They developed Aviemore into somewhere people from all over the country/world would want to go for a ‘traditionally Scottish’ time. In order that this could happen places had to be built so that people could stay there if they were looking for more than a day trip.
Therefore, hotels, pubs, restaurants, tourist information centers and lots more were built. People want to be in the countryside but they don’t mean it word for word; they probably wouldn’t be up for it if there wasn’t any civilization then it would be too far away from home, this means that there is great demand for hotels and inns etc.
I got this information from the city its self, maps and pictures. See figure which shows typical pubs.
Aviemore is part of the Craigellachie National Nature Reserve this means that there is a limit on what they can do and where they can develop which is good because then it doesn’t become out of control. They go by guidelines,
Landscape
Strategic Objectives
- To maintain a mixture of land uses, supporting local communities and generating employment;
- To identify, enhance and protect popular beauty spots;
- To provide well-designed roadside facilities for the enjoyment of popular views;
- To assess, in advance of implementation, the landscape implications of all significant changes to land use and new developments, including new woodland, roads, vehicle tracks, pylons and engineering works;
- To enhance traditional and sensitively designed man-made features in the countryside, and to limit or remove those unsightly features which are redundant or diminish the local identity of individual parts of the area;
- To maintain and enhance the attractive and largely traditional character of the built and designed landscape; and
- To continue the redevelopment and upgrading of Aviemore to improve its visual appearance and relationship to the countryside around it.
This is a direct quote from
What is the Sphere Influence of Aviemore?
Aviemore is becoming more and more popular all the time with Scotland becoming a more popular holiday and recreation destination. People come from Scotland, Britain and from abroad. Look at Figure…. A desire map of the world showing where people are coming from abroad.
I gave the questionnaire to as many people as I could find but some people didn’t have the time to answer my questions so I only got 31 filled out questionnaires in total.
By this Pie Chart it is obvious that there are many people coming from around the world but most of them are from Britain. Most of them are from Scotland and not many, in comparison, come from England.
Here is a desire map of Britain showing where people came from within the UK.
What is the impact of tourism on the environment?
For this part of the project I used environmental surveys and different points around Aviemore. It is a ‘litter on the floor assessment’. I have rated all the places that I have surveyed. I gave them scores between –2 and +2.
I gathered this information through means of visually assessing. Obviously the litter would be affected by the time of day, period in the week, the weather, the area it was in etc. So to make it a fair test I have collected all the data at the same time.
My I noticed that the litter was a lot less around areas like the Hilton and privately owned property. I think this is because of employed staff to keep the place looking clean. I am sure that there are street cleaners in Aviemore but it may have been a few days since it was last swept.
I felt that I was harsh on marking and should Aviemore be compared to, for example, Glasgow there would be far more pollution of this sort on the streets.
I also did a Traffic Count.
Here, the correlation is that in the morning people are going to work, it dies off, raised slightly for lunch time and after noon, at dinner time lots of people travel home but it dies off after until hardly anyone using their cars.
It is hard to say how many people are using their cars in comparison to walking home. My pedestrian count didn’t really show much but there are reasons for that.
I think that the reason there is no real correlation between the two is because people might not be walking to and from work, just shopping, enjoying a stroll or heading for lunch. The Pedestrian count shows that there are more people around at lunch time and in the after noon, it dies away as it gets later after 4 o’clock.
Conclusion:
I think that the impact of tourism on Aviemore is huge! I could not include it all in this project. Although I have found quite a few ways in which it does effect the
The attractions of Aviemore are now more numerous than ever before. People come to do a verity of things going from relaxing to out door pursuits. With Aviemore being the top ski resort in Scotland it attracts a lot of people. In the summer, when there is no snow, the mountain is used for out-door-pursuits, such as mountain biking and mountain climbing. But, it is not only the mountains that attract the tourists, the town is becoming more and more appealing to ‘city livers’ who want to see and experience the relaxation and tranquillity of the Scottish Highlands.
The land use of Aviemore has changed dramatically over the recent past. It used to be a small farmers’ market but steadily grew into a worldwide known tourist attraction. This has had a huge toll on the land. People demand things, when you have more people your going to have more demands; to comply with it. Therefore hotels, pubs, shops, tourist information booths, etc. were all built. Land that was once farmland was taken up to do this.
The sphere influence of Aviemore is a large one. People come from all over the world. As far as New Zealand and as close as Inverness. People come for different reasons and it is clear that Aviemore can offer what the people want.
The Impact of tourism on Aviemore has been so vast. It has changed the way the town looks, the way the town works, the inhabitants’ lives and the people who are attracted to it. I feel that my QFIs show some of the ways in which it has changed and they give evidence on how I obtained the conclusion.
The main limitation with the project was that I was limited in the time I had to do it and so I had to collect data along transect routes and that might have given me a wrong conclusion about the area. Also I have not been able to collect data during different months and seasons as that might have given me different results and conclusion as more or less tourists would have been present doing different activities and that would have had a different impact on the environment. Overall I think my project is quite good, but if I was to do it again I would be interested to investigate different time periods and seasons and times during the day.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
1. WHERE ARE YOU FROM? ……………………………………………………
2. HOW DID YOU GET HERE? (Circle) car train bus bike
3. HOW LONG ARE YOU STAYING IN AVIEMORE? ………………………….
4. WHY HAVE YOU COME TO AVIEMORE?
WALKING NICE GOOD EASY TO LOTS TO DO
/CLIMBING COUNTRYSIDE FACILITIES GET HERE
- WHAT FEATURES DOES AVIEMORE HAVE THAT MAKE IT A GOOD CENTRE?
GOOD LOTS SUITED TO EASY TO EXCELLENT
ACCOMODATION TO DO TOURISTS GET TO SHOPS
Traffic count
NORTH SOUTH TOTAL
Pedestrian count
NORTH SOUTH TOTAL
