Funkcja turystyczna obszaru nadbużańskiego

Abstract

The studies on the tourist function are an important and comprehensive part of geography of tourism. With new forms of tourist movement emerging, the term “tourist function” broadened its meaning. Nowadays, we are observing not only a traditional approach to the issue of tourist function, involving mainly its economic aspect, but also a new, broader approach, which involves such elements as: natural and anthropogenic assets, volume and quality of tourist facilities or the structure of tourist movement. The article depicts the results of author’s study of the tourist function of the Bug river area communes. Based on the analyses conducted, it was determined that 21 units known as the “Bug river area”, were chosen as the area of study. The area consists mainly of rural communes, which is reflected in their economic profile, where agriculture clearly predominates. Considering low profitability of agriculture in Poland, the inhabitants of the Bug river area are forced to seek additional sources of income. Tourism and services for tourists are one of the opportunities for such an alternative economic activity. This leads to the formation and development of a tourist function. In the past, such function was developing irregularly, mainly due to the investments made by local companies, which invested in the so-called company accommodation establishments, because of Bug river area’s excellent recreational conditions. Nowadays, the effects of these investments are still visible, as the communes with the largest amount of company accommodation establishments built in the past, are among the communes with the mostly developed tourist function. In order to grasp the objective level of the tourist function, the author used its five basic measures: 1. Baretje-Defert index – number of tourist beds per 100 inhabitants. 2. Defert index – number of accommodated tourists per 1 km2. 3. Schneider index – number of accommodated tourists per 100 permanent residents. 4. Charvat index – number of accommodations provided per 100 inhabitants. 5. Index of accommodation facilities density – number of beds per 1 km2. Additionally, a synthetic tourist function index, which includes more than two components, was used. The results of the study show three specific features of the Bug river area tourist function: 1. It is spatially varied and disproportions of its development are very high. 2. It shows clear signs of seasonality. 3. Its significance in relation to the rest of the country is low. Only in case of three communes it can be said that it is relatively high.