Tourismus auf Rügen - Chancen und Risiken der Umstrukturierung infolge der deutschen Einigung

Book published by Geographisches Institut der Universität des Saarlandes (1993)

The island of Rügen has a rich potential for tourism. Apart from the famous chalk cliffs and 50 miles of beaches the island has a remarkable variety of scenery and a great number of historico-cultural ... [more ▼]

The island of Rügen has a rich potential for tourism. Apart from the famous chalk cliffs and 50 miles of beaches the island has a remarkable variety of scenery and a great number of historico-cultural attractions. Tourism at Rügen dates back to the end of the 18th century. It reached its first peak around 1900. After the 2nd World War state/union-run recreational organisation replaced the in-dividual tourism of the more prosperous people. This socialistic form of tourism was not based on economical principles but was part of the social welfare. 97% of the people of the GDR went on do-mestic holidays, one ninth of them to the island of Rügen. The German unification and the following process of restructuring had their effects on the tou-rism at Rügen as well. The chances and the risks of the restructuring have been examined in this thesis. The socialist period had a lot of positive effects on the development of tourism at Rügen prior to the actual restructuring process. This was partly due to the economical weakness of the GDR, and partly to the missing of typical capitalist structures. The lack of land speculation for example explains the 95% of unspoiled coastal areas. Some classical Baltic seaside resorts are still well preserved. Negative consequences of the socialist period are for instance ecological damages, poor con-ditions of scenic buildings at the resorts and the very low level of various kinds of infrastructure. The actual reshaping of tourism offers the chance to correct the negative consequences of the socialist period and to use its positive consequences for an adequate tourism development. The fact, that this develop¬ment starts 20 years later than in West Germany, offers the chance to learn from the mistakes made not only on the West German coasts. The sudden reorientation towards the market economy following the slow but continuous socia-list development also contains some considerable risks. Above all there is the deterioration of the landscape and the dying of the small-scale private accommodations caused by newly-built modern holiday-centers. There are also risks that municipalities will be subject to dishonest speculation, or that adjoining municipalities may suffer through exaggerated economic rivalry. While the negative consequences of the socialist past are mostly reversible, today's West German investment can cause irreversible changes to the landscape. In '90/'91 there was an increasing number of West German short-term visitors. They outweighted by far the long-term visitors. A solid base for the development of tourism is provided by the main pool of potential visitors reaching to Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sachsen and Sachsen-Anhalt. Due to the German unification, Rügen became over night a major attraction in the frame of tourism-projects in Germany. The latter fact causes some new problems for the island. The district government of Rügen has set ambitious goals for the development of an ecologically and socially tolerated tourism, but the realization will not be easy. However, a cautious optimistic prognosis seems reasonable. [less ▲]

Technik im Saarbergbau - Historische Entwicklung und regionale Wirkung

Book published by Akademie-Verlag (1990)