Research project MD/DD/21 (Research action MD)
Research objectives
Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors .with important possibilities for the generation of new income and for job creation. On the other hand it is clear that tourism drastically increases the saturation of our transport facilities, and that is has a negative impact on the quality of the environment and on the safety of our roads. In order to guarantee the sustainable development of tourism, there is an urgent need to understand what exactly moves people to what kind of tourist behaviour. What are the demanding factors of the demands of tourists for mobility?
In this context the project realizes three objectives:
objective one: to provide a thorough economic analysis of tourist mobility and maps the social factors underlying this mobility.
objective two: to develop a methodology to trace the relevant social factors, to analyze those factors into their elementary components, and to combine them into one integrated social map. At the same time a database structure is developed that is suitable to store and search the complex reality of the map.
objective three: To valorize the results by means of publications, reports, workshops with leading actors and by means of suitable databases and metadatabases (on line on WWW).
Methodology
The project consists of three main tasks: to collect, analyze and valorize the data on relevant social practices.
Collect data:
The basic data are provided by a case-study of tourism to the coast and by existing data on mobility and tourist mobility. Special attention is paid to these aspects of mobility that result in road accidents or damage to nature. For each type of mobility an overview of the corresponding social 'accessoires'’ and 'attitudes' will be made. This provides the groundwork of a full reconstruction of the basic characteristics of the social practices involved.
Analyze data:
A literature study provides the basis for a further analysis of the social practices that are found. Their main components will be revealed as well as their interaction. The newest methodologies to develop distributed hypermedia systems will be used to keep track of the ever changing and complex nature of this interaction.
Valorize:
In-depth interviews with policy makers and expert meetings will be used to explore the most relevant way to represent the data of the social map.
Potential users
The social map will be a useful tool for
1. policymakers responsible for the organization of mobility, tourism, road safety and nature conservation as well as those responsible for Belgian’s contribution to the implementation of international conventions on nature conservation.
2. managers of nature reserves and parks aiming at a sustainable development of tourism linked to nature conservation
3. researchers who study the social factors underlying mobility, road accidents and the state of nature.
Link to Sustainable Development
The project focuses on the sustainable development of tourism, with special attention for tourism to nature reserves.
Analyse et monitoring des pratiques sociales qui déterminent la demande de mobilité: rapport final
Bruxelles: SSTC, 2001 (SP0904)
[To download]
Analyse et monitoring des pratiques sociales qui déterminent la demande de mobilité: résumé
Bruxelles: SSTC, 2001 (SP0905)
[To download]
Analyzing and monitoring social practices that determine the demand for mobility: abstract
Brussels: OSTC, 2001 (SP0906)
[To download]
