The role of the natural environment in waterside travel destinations

Abstract

Waterside destinations make up the bulk of world tourism. Travellers of the post-mass-tourism era seek new and authentic experiences. This implies new challenges for waterside destinations, too. During the development of high quality services, new attractions and repositioning, the natural environment often takes second place. Today many waterside resorts are attractive for traveling not only during the summer season, motivating a wider range of travellers to visit them. Based on the Hungarian experience, the article focuses on the role of the natural environment in tourism to waterside places. Following an overview of the pertinent literature, the results of an empirical study conducted among potential Hungarian travelers (urban people with waterside holiday experience) are presented. The research includes the role of the natural environment in the image of a waterside holiday, in the decision-making process, and among the characteristics of Hungarian waterside destinations.

According to the study results, the natural environment is represented most strongly by the water-shore situation itself and plays an outstanding part in the image of a waterside holiday, independent of any socio-demographic factors analysed. So the natural environment at the waterside itself is an attraction for potential travelers. An interesting outcome of the research was that the advantages of a domestic trip ranked prominently when rating the characteristics and uniqueness of Hungarian waterside destinations. Besides the water, the flora and fauna, a nice panorama form important parts of the waterside natural enviroment on the mental map of potential travelers. The social-cultural aspect of a waterside destination deals only with the cotraveling family and friends, not with the host community. The ’place-specific’ attractions are not dominant, and the general image of waterside destinations is strongly influenced by the image of Lake Balaton. The closer the destination is, the smaller the geographical area is (e.g. lake, city) on the mental map of urban people with waterside holiday experience. The research highlights sports, culture, gastronomy and wines, as well as health tourism among the attractions independent of the water attraction itself. Among them, sports can be a motivation for a waterside trip. This means that although the relaxation is still dominant at the watersides, the Hungarian destinations are more and more attractive during the low season as well. So tourism demand is shaped by touristic developments, and inversely, the demand trends call for new types of attractions, services, etc.

In conclusion, we point out that the awareness of the natural environment’s role in waterside destinations can help to find the real values of those places. Mapping the watersides’ characteristics in this study can be a success factor for a sustainable and competitive future in mature destinations, and can help develop new ones.