A beautiful environment and rich cultural heritage may draw the attention of a lot of visitors to an area, even if tourism development there is only fragmentary or non-existent. In these cases, the negative impacts of tourism may be particularly critical, as unplanned development of singular tourist businesses and infrastructure leads to unmanageable threats for nature (e.g. through trails that cut through bio-corridors) and society (e.g. growing inequalities in a region). The consequence thereof can be the irretrievable ruin of the region's treasures and thus of its tourism-related potential.
In order to prevent such threats and to allow for a controlled development that benefits the whole local community and its environment in the long-term, comprehensive sustainable tourism development represents a suitable alternative.
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A reservoir built on the Dunajec River some 40 years ago cut into the Carpathian ecological corridor and flooded a number of settlements in the area. The area around the reservoir remains precious and sensitive. Because of unmanaged tourism development the value of the area is decreasing. Yet, it is not too late to take steps to preserve the area through sustainable development based mainly on tourism.
Czorsztynski Reservoir is located in southern Poland in Malopolskie Voivodship. It is an artificial reservoir on Dunajec River with an area of 1,200 ha, 12.5 km long and 1.7 km across at its widest point.
The reservoir is situated on the Carpathian ecological corridor and is surrounded by two National Parks (Pieninski, Gorczanski). The building of the reservoir in the 1960s already had a significant impact on fauna and flora, not to mention on local inhabitants, who had to move out of the flooded area.
The beauty of the landscape, cultural and natural values of the area and presence of the reservoir with its brackish waters attract a high number of tourists from the region to the area surrounding the artificial lake. Transportation and tourism infrastructure developments started in the second part of the 20th century. Currently the number of villas, summer houses and pensions for tourists that are being built is increasing rapidly. Most of the dwellings built are suitable only for summer and the jobs related to tourism are seasonal. Chaotic site development, a lack of spatial management, and destructive changes of landscape character describe the current developments. In the neighbourhood of the nature reserve more accommodation facilities are under construction, which will cause cutting through another part of the Carpathian ecological corridor.
Such chaotic developments may have impacts not only on the environment, but also on the quality of life of the local communities and a decrease in the attractiveness of the region, while not benefiting the communities in economic terms sufficiently. Increasing the number of visitors and infrastructure development results in higher demand for water resources, significant increase in waste production, as well as soil contamination and air pollution due to increasing transport (with many people travelling by car instead of public transport).
The present situation demands that the reservoir be used in building the regional advantage, increasing the quality of life of local communities and relieving the overcrowded tourism destinations a bit in two surroundings national parks.
Development of tourism in the area taking into account the needs and opinion of local people, and planning a long-term vision of the reservoir surroundings together with the local communities could reveal a potential of the area that is more beneficial to the communities and for preservation of the nature at the same time.
For more information please contact:
Dominika Lemler, Polish Tourist Country-Lovers’ Society, Academic Section in Krakow
E-mail: dlemler@o2.pl
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Selected Future Opportunities for Enhancing Positive and Preventing Negative Impacts of Tourism
