SAULEPI AND MATSI CASE STUDY FACTORS INFLUENCING SATISFACTION OF LOCAL RESIDENTS Thomas Lønning Bjørnestad, Ekaterina Bulakh, Karin Kangur and Petr Piekar Pärnu 2014 Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Study area ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Terra Maritima .................................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Semi-structured interviews ................................................................................................................. 7 Observation ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Secondary data .................................................................................................................................... 8 Theoretical framework ............................................................................................................................ 9 Residential satisfaction ........................................................................................................................ 9 Impacts of second home tourism ...................................................................................................... 10 Economic impacts .............................................................................................................................. 10 Environmental impacts...................................................................................................................... 10 Socio-cultural ..................................................................................................................................... 11 What is “place”? ................................................................................................................................ 11 Phenomenology and sense of place .................................................................................................. 12 Creating places .................................................................................................................................. 14 From production to consumption? ................................................................................................... 15 Analysis .................................................................................................................................................. 16 Satisfaction ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Factors ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Economic impacts .............................................................................................................................. 18 Environmental impacts...................................................................................................................... 18 Socio-cultural ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Sense of place .................................................................................................................................... 20 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 21 References ............................................................................................................................................. 23 2 Introduction The research is focused on the influx of summer people and temporally dwellers and what impacts they have on the local permanent dwellers. The area of our research is two villages of Saulepi and Matsi in Varbla parish. Motivation and aim of the study Our motivation behind this project is a general interest in regional development. Tourism and second homes are both integral to the development of rural areas, and many places’ survival stands and falls on seasonal changes caused by the influx of tourists and part-time inhabitants. The seasonal flow of invisible people to the small villages of Saulepi and Matsi has an impact that not only extends to the physical but also influences the inhabitants' views of their home, negatively or positively. The aim of the case study is to investigate how seasonal change and the presence of part-time inhabitants impacts the residential satisfaction and sense of place of the permanent residents in Saulepi and Matsi. Therefore our research question is: What are the factors that determine residential satisfaction and sense of place in the villages Matsi and Saulepi? 3 Study area Varbla parish is situated to northwest of Pärnu county (figure 1.). The parish area is 313,8 square kilometres and more than half of the land is forest (57%). Varbla parish has 30 kilometres of nice coastline, which is a magnet for tourists and people who enjoy the beach and nature around it. It is 70 kilometres to Pärnu from Varbla centre and 151 kilometres to Tallinn. The population of Varbla is decreasing (figure 2.) and in 2014 there were 800 people registered in Varbla parish, but the number might be wrong, because the registered people may have their permanent homes somewhere else. The Population is also decreasing because the natural population growth is negative and the out-migration is quite high (Varbla arengukava, 2012-2022). Figure 1. Summerhouses in Matsi and Saulepi villages. (Maa-amet) 4 1200 1000 800 600 women 400 men 200 0 2011 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 2013 2014 Figure 2. Population changes in Varbla parish 2000-2014 (Eesti Statistika Amet) Our area of study only has 11 people living permanently, five in Matsi and six in Saulepi. If Matsi has five locals with each having a private house then in Saulepi there are only three houses, which means that in Matsi people live alone and in Saulepi a family lives within one dwelling. There are only old people living in Saulepi and Matsi and the place is perfect for relaxation and rest from the urban buzz and chaos. This is why old people like to stay in these villages to enjoy silence and solitude. According to the official data there are more people registered in the area than there actually is. Those who are registered but not living there are mainly the relatives of the permanent dwellers, who also consider moving to the place when they are pensioners. The children of the locals are quite active in developing the villages; they have constructed new playgrounds for children as well as a bus stop. They also have their own community of younger generation and they gather from the whole region of Varbla parish, not only Matsi and Saulepi, to have some common activities. Terra Maritima Varbla and the other five villages (Lihula, Hnaila, Ridala, Martna and Koonga) are a part of common project “Terra Maritima”, which means Land by the sea in Latine. This project has 5 started in January 2005. The main goal of this project is the development of sustainable tourism in the region. The basic document of Terra Maritima tourism region is “Tourism and economic recreation development plan”, which was applied for the years 2008-2015. (Terra Maritima 2006). This project can be seen as a marketing tool for the promotion of tourism in these villages. 6 Methodology Semi-structured interviews We have used semi-structured interviews because they are “useful for investigating complex behaviours, opinions and emotions and for collecting a diversity of experiences. These methods do not offer researchers a route to “the truth” but they do offer a route to partial insights into what people do and think” (Clifford et al, 2010, p.112). We wanted to find out people’s personal opinion concerning summer-time dwellers and tourists, their satisfaction with their current life, situation in the village and what they would like to change. Other advantages of the questions asked in semi-structured interviews are “content-focused and deal with the issues or areas judged by the researcher to be relevant to the research question. The semi-structured interview is organized around ordered but flexible questioning” (Iain Hay, 2010, p.110). We have interviewed eight people, two of whom are summer time dwellers and one was not from our villages. The majority of people were ready to help us with the research, answering the questions we have asked but some people declined even to talk. There was one old lady, who did not want even to talk to us, however, her neighbours tried to convince her and also were surprised that she refused. Then there was an old man who had just been released from hospital so we just decided not to bother him. Another man was a heavy drinker so we did not dare to visit him. One lady was away from the place and the other said she is working long hours so she is too tired to give an interview. Observation Another method we used for our research was observation. According to White and Jackson 1995 "whether we seek to count, to gather complementary