Reviewed Paper the Influence of Tourist Development in the Coastal
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reviewed paper The influence of tourist development in the coastal natural environment of Faliraki on the island of Rhodes Agisilaos ECONOMOU Candidate Phd., National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A), Nikaias 18, 17122, Athens, Greece, [email protected] 1 INTRODUCTION In the present work the repercussions of the phenomenon of tourism in the region of Faliraki of Rhodes are researched. The objective is to investigate the effects in the natural environment and the offered tourist product. The factors which were taken into account are: • The effect of tourism in the natural resources • The changes that tourism brought to the economy and to the sectors of production • The changes in land uses of the region because of tourist development • The attitude of local authorities and hotel keepers owners regarding environmental problems • The environmental and tourist policy • The institutional framework The research focused on the tourist development of the region from 1970 up to today. The approach of the effect of tourist development in the natural environment of Faliraki was based on interviews in combination with on the spot observations as well as comparative study of maps of the region. The research aimed at determining: • The environmental problems because the tourist development • The tendencies of tourist development of region • The attitude of citizens on issues protection of environment The interviews took place through the use of a questionnaire and were addressed to the Directors - Owners of the hotels and to the local authorities. There were also interviews of the chairmen of the union of hotel keepers of Rhodes and Greece, the association of beach-umbrella makers, the union of rooms-to-lent owners of Faliraki, as well as of other businessmen. At the same time, field observations were made in order to determine and record the problems and the effects in the area. An effort to estimate the environmental influences of tourist development and the currying capacity and faculty of the region of Faliraki was made, and measures for their confrontation were proposed, aiming at the preservation of the environment and the improvement of the quality of the tourist product. For the study of the development of the region aerial photographs of the years 1960, 1975, and 1990, as well as an orthomap of the year 1999, were used. 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPMENT OF REGION Concerning the development physiognomy of the region researched, it is stressed that this is characterized by the big tourist development that took place during the period from 1969 until today. Its proximity to the city of Rhodes (15 km.) played an important role in its development. Based on information from the Municipality of Kallithea and the study of aerial photographs, in the region, before the development of tourism, the area was rural with vegetables being cultivated at a large scale and then sold to the rest of Greece. The beach of Faliraki was entirely natural until the mid 70’s. Until then, no infrastructure and seasonal equipment existed. The only visitors of the beach were mainly the residents of the community of Kallithea which cultivated the region of Faliraki. In the early 70’s they first hotels units were built, and they first tourists who come from Scandinavian countries began to arrive. In the middle of the same decade the beach was transformed into a typical beach. During the 80’s a large scale tourist development which continues to this day, followed. Agricultural exploitation was progressively limited and the residents were redirected towards enterprises of tourist interest, which today constitute "monoculture of" region of Faliraki. REAL CORP 007 Proceedings / Tagungsband ISBN: 978-39502139-2-8 (CD-ROM); ISBN: 978-39502139-3-5 (Print) Vienna, May 20-23 2007 www.corp.at Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Josef BENEDIKT 703 The influence of tourist development in the coastal natural environment of Faliraki on the island of Rhodes NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE SECTOR:URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING MAP1 :NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS, ROADS NETWORK AND USES OF LAND IN THE REGION OF FALIRAKI ± LEGEND ROAD RIVER SEA FOREST AREA LOYNA - PARK - RECREATION " # CENTER OF NIGHTLIFE LIVE RESTAURANTS # POINT OF VIEW " WATER PARK PROTECTIVE AREA A RETAIL TRADE E H HOTELS # IT L L A K F O Y A B SCALE 1:10000 ADUPTION:ECONOMOU AGISILAOS SOURCE OF DATA: MINISTRY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT FALIRAKI SPATIAL PLANNING AND RUBLIC WORKS # O # IK D LA F O Y BA # 0175 350 700 1,050 1,400 Meters Chart 1: natural characteristics, road network and uses of land in the region of Faliraki 3 EFFECTS OF TOURISM IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF FALIRAKI The tourist development in the island of Rhodes began during the 60’s (Study of Doxiadis "Tourist development of Faliraki of Rhodes, 1969). In the region of Faliraki during this decade, it a small number of hotel beds, restaurants and residences existed. The tourist movement and the overnight stays in the region of Kallithea, where the settlement of Faliraki is found, according to the statistical elements of the Greek tourism organization for the period 1993 - 2004 (for the period 1970 - 1993 separate statistical elements do not exist), are presented in the graphs 1 and 2 respectively: REAL CORP 007: To Plan Is Not Enough: Strategies, Plans, Concepts, Projects 704 and their successful implementation in Urban, Regional and Real Estate Development Agisilaos Economou 250000 S 200000 150000 100000 NUMBER OF ARRIVAL 50000 0 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 YEARS NATIVES FOREIGNERS TOTAL OF TOURISTS Graphs 1: Tourist movement in the Faliraki at time interval 1993 - 2004 (Source: Greek tourist organization - Address of Tourism Dodecanese, 2004) 2500000 Y 2000000 1500000 1000000 NUMBER OF OVERNIGHT STA 500000 0 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 YEARS NATIVES FOREIGNERS TOTAL OF TOURISTS Graphs 2: Overnight stays of tourists in the region of Faliraki during the 1993 - 2004 (:EOT Source- Address of tourism Dodecanese, 2004). From the elements of research, it is shown that the tourist movement and the overnight stays in the region of Faliraki were about constant in period between the years 1990 - 2000. The origin of tourists was mostly from European countries (Graph 3). The greatest percentage of tourists that resided in B, C, D and E category hotels came from England. CEIT ALANOVA Central European Institute of Technology, 705 Dept. for Urbanism, Transport, Environment & Information Society The influence of tourist development in the coastal natural environment of Faliraki on the island of Rhodes 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 % HOTELS 30 20 10 0 Italy Israel France East Greece Holland Austrian Belgium England Germany Countries Switzerland Countries Scandinavian NATIONALITIES Hotels AA and A category Hotels B,C,D and E category Graph 3: Nationalities of tourists in the hotels of Faliraki in year 2001 (Source: Administration of tourism Dodecanese, 2000) The tourist development in Faliraki, apart from the economic benefits had important effects in the urban - social organization as well as in the natural environment. Based on the aerial photographsof 1960, 1975, 1990 and the orthophotomap of 1999, a progressive transformation of uses of region is observed. The agricultural land, is progressively transformed into a region of tourist interest. This had as result the suppression of some sources of pollution and the appearance of others. The pollution in the region, prior to the tourist development they come mainly from agricultural human activities. The growth of the region meant the progressive appearance of new sources of pollution: hotel groups, rented rooms, settlements, cars, restaurants, refreshment stands, night-clubs, and high speed ships. Faliraki is a new settlement that was created in a relatively short time in order to cover elementary and current needs of mass tourism. This development caused a series of urban and environmental problems. The large concentration of recreational and other uses in the central settlement of Faliraki or the lack of open communal spaces, open spaces, and parking space are typical of the region. Also typical also it is the insufficiency of road and infrastructure networks (sewage network). 4 THE RESULTS OF RESEARCH ON THE SPOT AND PERSONAL INTERVIEWS In order to determine the problems, which come from the development of tourism in the region of Faliraki, field research was conducted during August, the tourist season peak period.. As it was also reported in the introduction, personal interviews took place along with field observation. Before we describe the results, for their better comprehension, the hotel potential of the region of Faliraki is reported the table that follows: CLASS HOTELS ROOMS BEDS ΑΑ 2 575 1168 Α 16 4632 8610 Β 11 598 1147 Γ 23 1017 1940 ∆ 3 91 178 Ε 15 245 494 TOTAL 70 7158 13537 Tables 1: Number of beds and rooms per category of hotels in the region of Faliraki (Source: Greek tourist organization - Address of Tourism Dodecanese, 2000) By examining the data of the research, it was realized that the foundation of hotel units in the region of Faliraki took place between the years 1970 - 2001. However, most hotels units became operational during the decade between 1981-1990 (Graph 4). REAL CORP 007: To Plan Is Not Enough: Strategies, Plans, Concepts, Projects 706 and their successful implementation in Urban, Regional and Real Estate Development Agisilaos Economou 80 70 60 S 50 40 30 % HOTEL 20 10 0 1960 -1970 1971- 1980 1981- 1990 1991- 2001 YEARS Hotels AA and A category Hotels B,C,D and E category Graph 4: Foundation of new hotel snits in Faliraki at during the years 1960 -2001 (Source: field research, 2001) The main forms of tourism observed in the region of Faliraki, were organized tourism, individual tourists and the tourists who finance their vacations by working in recreation centers.