'Seascapes' voor hedendaagse bezoekers of toeristen: een uitdaging? Cases: Nederlandse en Belgische badplaatsen = 'Seascapes' for contemporary visitors or tourists: a challenge? Cases: Dutch and Belgian seaside resorts
Gruijthuijsen, W. (2015). 'Seascapes' voor hedendaagse bezoekers of toeristen: een uitdaging? Cases: Nederlandse en Belgische badplaatsen = 'Seascapes' for contemporary visitors or tourists: a challenge? Cases: Dutch and Belgian seaside resorts. MSc Thesis. KU Leuven: Leuven. 197 pp.
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Document type: Dissertation
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| Keywords |
De kust
Hedendaagse Tijd (1789-heden) > Naoorlogse periode (1945-heden)
Sociale geschiedenis > Toerisme
Marine/Coastal |
| Abstract |
The main goal of this research was to get more insight in the way in which the Belgian and Dutch coast could satisfy the needs and wishes of the contemporary visitor or tourist. Therefore, the main research question was formulated as follows: “What must be done to make the Dutch and Belgian coast more competitive and to meet the needs and wishes of the contemporary visitor or tourist?” A survey was carried out to gain more insight into the perspective of the tourist and visitor, while interviews were carried out to gain more insight into the supply and policy side of the touristic product. To capture the uniqueness of place in more detail, four cases were chosen: Scheveningen and Zandvoort in the Netherlands and Ostend and Blankenberge in Belgium. To realize a successful repositioning, it is important to know more about the current state and the historical development. Therefore, the ‘tourism area life cycle’ was used to gain a detailed view on the development and current position. The results illustrate that in general the visitors are satisfied with their visit. Besides of sun, sea and sand, aspects as ‘to have a walk’, ‘relaxing’ and ‘catering’ are considered as important. Nevertheless, modernization (of the public area) is required. The local governments and suppliers of the touristic product emphasize the need for more distinctiveness and improvement of the quality. Based on the efforts by the municipalities, it seems appropriate to talk about a re-orientation phase. Although there are differences in the way of dealing with the planning and implementation of the tourism policy. |
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