Geographia Polonica Vol. 87 No. 1 (2014) : Road Accessibility
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Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 1, pp. 5-26 Geographia Polonica Volume 87, Issue 1, pp. 5-26 http://dx.doi.org/10.7163/GPol.2014.1 INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES www.igipz.pan.pl www.geographiapolonica.pl ROAD ACCESSIBILITY TO TOURIST DESTINATIONS OF THE POLISH-SLOVAK BORDERLAND: 2010-2030 PREDICTION AND PLANNING Marek Więckowski1 • Daniel Michniak2 • Maria Bednarek-Szczepańska1 Branislav Chrenka2 • Vladimír Ira2 • Tomasz Komornicki1 Piotr Rosik1 • Marcin Stępniak1 • Vladimír Székely2 Przemysław Śleszyński1 • Dariusz Świątek1 • Rafał Wiśniewski1 1 Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw: Poland e-mails: [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] [email protected] 2 Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia e-mails: [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected] Abstract An essential requirement for the development, not only of tourism but also of most sectors of economy, is the development of transport infrastructure and adequate accessibility of areas. Accessibility is an important element for tourism development. The Polish-Slovak borderland is currently suffering from inadequate routes to the region and cross-border connections because of the mountains. The borderland are characterised by the poor accessibility and bad condition of the roads. Unfortunately, tourism development analyses and studies carried out over recent decades in Poland and Slovakia have not addressed the problems. The aims of the article was to analyse the Polish-Slovak borderland road accessibility and the key transport solutions required for successful road development. The article presents the results of the analysis on road accessibility to the tourist destinations on the Polish-Slovak borderland. Opportunities for enhancing tourist potential through improved road accessibility of the borderland and new road investments are noted. The accessibility of the area was calculated separately for general tourism, and medium-term tourism (long weekends, 2-4 days) in two years: 2010 and 2030. Key words road accessibility • road transport • time-based accessibility • tourist development • regional development • demand • isochrones • potential model • Carpathians • Polish-Slovak borderland 6 Marek Więckowski et al. Introduction research which was produced in two mono- graphs (Więckowski et al. 2012a,b). This Spatial interactions result from a range article is an elaboration based on the two, of aspects and reveal the specificities of the above-mentioned studies. In this article, the interdependence between phenomena and most detailed analysis was on accessibil- the way phenomena function. As regards ity by road. Cars make up the basic means tourism, interactions usually occur between of tourist transport to the Polish-Slovak bor- the emission areas and reception areas. derland. The interactions are based on transit (trans- portation). Human mobility refers to the Methods size and frequency of tourist flows and the impact on spatial interactions. Accessibility The first aim of this article was to analyse is an important element for tourism develop- the Polish-Slovak borderland road accessibil- ment. Upgrading the transport infrastructure ity. The second aim was to analyse the key improves the attractiveness of tourist desti- transport solutions required for successful nations and helps new tourist destinations road development. The article presents the to be discovered. Increased tourism, includ- results of the analysis on road accessibil- ing tourist flows, is forcing decision mak- ity to the tourist destinations on the Polish- ers to improve transport systems. On the -Slovak borderland. Opportunities for enhanc- other hand, poor accessibility causes tourists ing tourist potential through improved road to escape to regions with better accessibility, accessibility of the borderland and new development, and organisation, and better road investments, are noted. The accessi- quality services. Poor accessibility can be the bility analysis prepared in the course of the reason for the decline of a tourist region research may serve as the basis for invest- (Sorupia 2005). ment- and organisation-related recommen- There are favourable preconditions for dations that should improve the functional the development of various kinds of tour- connections between the areas. ism on the Polish-Slovak borderland and for After presenting some crucial connec- stimulating regional development in gen- tions between transport accessibility and the eral. This border, however, is currently suf- main characteristics of the studied area, the fering from inadequate routes to the region authors present the results of road acces- and cross-border connections because sibility to the Polish-Slovak borderland. The of the mountains. The borderland has the latter has been divided into several sections, least favourable natural conditions for which deal with different points of view as far transport and transit through all border as scale is concerned, and general external sections of both Poland and Slovakia (Pod- accessibility, and accessibility to tourist des- horský 1996; Zygadlewicz 1997; Komornicki tinations and centres, as well as different 1999; Więckowski 2004). This is why issues methods used: isochrones, potential accessi- for the cross-border areas concerned should bility, demand analysis. be addressed. The greatest range of methods could Unfortunately, tourism development ana- be applied to the accessibility by road (for all lyses and studies carried out over recent detailed needs see Więckowski et al. 2012a). decades in Poland and Slovakia have not In this article, the research results are for road addressed the problems. The results merely transport accessibility, because cars are the touch on the poor accessibility and bad principal means of transport used by tourists condition of the roads. The studies on the coming to the Polish-Slovak borderland area. accessibility of tourist areas are far and few The accessibility of the area was calculated between, fragmentary, and only cover small separately for general tourism, and medium- areas. We tried to fill the gap with detailed term tourism (long weekends, 2-4 days). For Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 1, pp. 5-26 Road accessibility to tourist destinations of the Polish-Slovak borderland: 2010-2030… 7 general tourism, time required for access The main method chosen for the trans- ‘to’ and ‘from’ a given destination was used. port accessibility analysis is the method For the medium-term tourism (the main type based on potential accessibility. All inhabit- of tourism on Polish-Slovak borderland), the ants on the European continent were con- potential accessibility analysis and demand sidered potential tourists, irrespective of the analysis were prepared. income and mobility of the population. The External accessibility was primarily whole area of Europe, along with the Polish- researched by using a model of potential -Slovak borderland, was divided into transport accessibility. This model incorporated regions in compliance with a traffic engineer- a number of assumptions (see explanations ing methodology developed by technical sci- in Więckowski 2012a) about how the attrac- entists. There were 133 regions marked out, tiveness of a destination depends on the including 49 in the borderland area; out of this tourist’s perception of the time required for number 25 were in Poland and 24 in Slova- travel. The second method used isochrones kia. Each of these 133 transport regions was to note the accessibility situation in 2010 given a mass, equivalent to the population liv- (all existing roads in 2010) and 2030. The ing in a given region. This mass was assumed analysis of potential accessibility was car- to be the number of potential tourists. Nodal ried out in two time spans corresponding towns in each region were identified. For each to the current condition and to the hypo- nodal town, the travel time from all nodal cit- thetical full development of the road system ies/towns in the Polish-Slovak borderland (49) (2030)1. Only the current population without was calculated in accordance with the traffic changes resulting from a natural popula- speed model. tion rise and (or) migration were taken into The function, which describes this phe- account. nomenon, is referred to as the distance-decay The results of the comparison of the function. It is an explanatory function used situations produced over this time should in tourism e.g. by McKarcher & Lew (2003). be interpreted as the maximum improvement For a medium-term tourist who comes attainable in accessibility (due to changes to the Polish-Slovak borderland and intends of new road construction). The measure- to spend 2-4 days there, the curve of the ments of internal accessibility concerned the distance-decay function is no longer a declin- analyses of travel times to selected cities/ ing curve but resembles a Gaussian curve towns in the Polish-Slovak borderland area. (Fig. 1). Only for medium and long-term tour- The method using isochrones was similar ist trips is the purpose for travel such that to the method applied for external accessibil- the attractiveness of the destinations is not ity. Next, cumulative accessibility was ana- a decreasing function in respect to increas- lysed