TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ON MURTER ISLAND A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PRESPECTIVE

WORKSHOP REPORT

TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ON MURTER ISLANDA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PRESPECTIVE

Luuk van den BergDion Koens

Wageningen University The Netherlands

DATE 9th of March 2011 LOCATION The Municipality building of Murter-Kornati

Sustainable tourism development on Murter island - Workshop report2

Sustainable tourism development on Murter island - Workshop Report 3

As part of our Master Thesis project at the Wageningen University (The Netherlands) on sustainable tourism development on Murter Island, we organized a workshop for everyone who was interested in tourism related to the environment. Beside the presentation of the preliminary results of our project, the aim of this workshop was to gain more knowledge about the opinions and ideas of local people. This local knowledge is very useful for making a spatial landscape plan for guiding tourism developments on Murter island. To gather this information we organized two interactive activities:

• Picture rating: where the participants have to choose whether they like or dislike certain images for the future on their island.• Sketching: here the participants was asked to come up with spatial ideas for Murter island as they like to see it in 2030 and draw the ideas on a map.

Three groups with an average of ten people each participated actively in this workshop, and they came up with interesting and refreshing ideas. With this report we summarize the outcomes of this workshop and link it to our thesis project.

Special thanks to:

- All the people of the Municipality and the Tourism Board of Murter-Kornati who helped us with the preparation of the workshop .- Our supervisor Dr. Irena Ateljevic and deputy mayor Dragica Basic, who helped us in facilitating the workshop and translating our presentation in Croatian.- All the participants (around 30 people), without them this could never be a success.


PICTURE RATING

In the first interactive part of the workshop each group got hundred pictures with different kind of aspects according to tourism or environment. The groups have to rate each picture by marking it as ‘like’ (in Croatian: svida mi se) or ‘ dislike’ (in Croatian: ne svida mi se). It is important to note that the participants were not introduced yet by the concept of unsustainibilty and sustainability, so they were not biased in advance. What they did not know as well is that we already linked each image to one of the four scenarios we made. Four scenarios were made, which are the result of combination of two different variables. The first variable is

the difference between sustainable and unsustainable development. These variable is important in our thesis because during our literature study we noticed that sustainable tourism is the only future for a region who wants to develop tourism in combination with the preservation of its natural and cultural qualities. The second variable is the growth of tourism. There is a choice between develop tourism on a local small scale or a large scale growth by external investors. When you combine those two variables four different models could be derived (see the figure below). On the next pages you will find the outcomes of this part of the workshop.



LOCAL TOURISM SPRAWL

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TOTAL SCORE LIKE DISLIKE

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This is the business-as-usual scenario. The developments follows the same trends as the previous years: more apartments and second homes accommodate by sun-sea-sand tourists. The island attract mainly family tourists who only care about the price of their holidays . The expenses of the money aware tourists are low. This in combination with marginal expansion of new tourist developments, there is not enough money to invest in improvement of public space and the landscape. More and more places on the island become bad maintained and neglected. 3

Group numberlikedislike


UNSUSTAINABLE MASS TOURISM

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In this scenario huge external investors came to the island with one goal: make a lot of short term money. Large companies do not care about people, environment and local culture. In spatial terms the large scale investments resulted, next to a continuation of the further growth of apartments and second homes, in resort clusters around certain bays on the island. These clusters are just accessible for guests and keep as much of the facilities internal in order to make more money. Next to the sun-sea-sand tourism, entertainment will become very important to increase the spendings of tourists. Theme parks, golf courses, casinos, bar strips and large hotels are constructed to facilitate this ‘new’ type of tourism. These unsustainable mass tourism developments will put high pressure on local village live, infrastructure, resources, cultural values and the natural environment.



RESTRUCTURED SUSTAINABLE TOURISM NETWORK

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This scenario focuses on small improvements by local stakeholders which together make the island more sustainable. To connect these initiatives, networks need to be made on different fields. The improvement of a sufficient network (foot- and bike paths) is very important in this scenario because this will make the island more attractive for people who like sports, nature, hiking, local culture and quietness. To make the path network more attractive several local attractions will constructed or improved. Locality is another keyword in this scenario, which means the use of local labour and resources as food, energy, water and materials. Existing accommodations will transformed in green ones by using local materials, green walls/roofs and sustainable resources.


NEW SUSTAINABLE TOURISM CLUSTERS

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The scenario of sustainable mass-tourism handles the tourism growth in a sustainable way. External investors came in to construct sustainable resorts, in which local culture, nature, architecture is involved into the design. Natural resources are exploited sustainable on a large scale windmill- and solar parks and water catchment installations. In order to keep control the new sustainable developments, conservation and improvement zones for cultural landscape and natural areas will be created. To attract tourists, historical sites and local traditions are exploited by musea and education/visitor centers. The infrastructure will be extended by more sustainable modes of transport and car free zones are created to discourage car use and create space for improvements and greening of the public space.


SKETCHING THE FUTURE OF TOURISM ON MURTER ISLANDAfter the explanation of the concept of sustainability the second phase of the group work starts. In this phase the groups have to make a spatial plan for the development of tourism on Murter island in 2030. They could use the images of the picture rating and link them to a location. Also they had the opportunity to come with new ideas. After thirty minutes of discussing, thinking and sketching each group presented the ideas in a five minute presentation to the other groups. The presentations and the sketches could be found on the next pages.



Group 1We consider that Murter island has a bad road infrastructure, because there is just one main road to access the island. This made it hard for tourists to go to the beaches. So we think that the access to Murter needs to be improved. This could be done by new bike or pedestrian paths (for example one which connects the middle of the island with Murter Selo). Furthermore we consider that the hill Raduc, although it has a beautiful and unique panoramic view on the Kornati, is not used at all for touristic purposes. So we think that there could be a museum or an activity center (climbing). In order to let tourists taste our local products, like wine and olive oil, every family should invite the them to let them taste our products. So every house on Murter should have a expression of local agriculture in their garden, which expresses their family traditions. Murter also needs an olive museum (we propose nearby Plitka vala) to express this local agriculture. We also consider that we should engage more with the dry stone walls, which could be achieved by a construction of monuments made of local stones. The harbor

front near the central square of Murter town is in a bad condition, so this need to be improved into a representative place in the center of the village. The road along this habour front needs to be improved, so that it will attract more (nautical) tourists. In general we think that we need to use more sustainable resources in the nearby future. Part of this is the south slope of Raduc could be used for a solar power installation. Another interesting thing for the future of Murter is the wine production, because we have data that the historical wine of Murter island belong to the best wines of Croatia three centuries ago. To achieve this the historic wine groves on the southern slopes of the hills should be reconstructed. Another attraction could be an underwater museum to show the beautiful and unique underwater life. For accommodations we have plans to construct new apartments or a hotel nearby Lucica bay. These apartments should be made that they do not harm the identity of the place and the landscape. This is generally the vision of our group about how especially Murter town should be.

PARTICIPANTS

Marina SkračićMarko JezinaKristina JezinaJosipa JezinaLuka JezinaToni TurčinovMateja BašičDario Juraga

Note: this are just the people who registered themselves.


Group 2Firstly we think that attractive places should become more connected. We think this could be done in two ways: by new walking and biking routes, which go around the island, and by a water taxi, which should connect the villages. This is very practical and a tourist attraction as well. We consider that in 2030 all public lightning could be run completely on solar power. And we really should have a regional museum, we think in each village one. Another attraction is a information center of the National park Kornati, because Kornati islands belong to the municipality of Murter. Other attractions are the panoramic views on several hills on the island (marked with light blue on the map). These place should be marked and decorated so they became more visible for tourists. We think that the centers of the villages should be car

free in the future. The complete southwestern part of the island should be marked as an area without any interventions at all, so this became natural areas which became relatively untouched. They only intervention here could be a few new small stone houses which are made out of local stones. We should not demolish hotel Collentum, but reconstruct it and improve the quality level into more stars. Instead of the hotel the slides in front should be removed and the complete bay should be renovated. On Gradina hill, we should revalue this old archeological site with remains of the roman empire. The history became in that sense more visible. Also constructing an amphitheatre for open air concerts and congresses will be great for the island.

PARTICIPANTS

Ivo PlesticBoris JuranJosip JerkouieMusrohja MilanIvo CoviaćevStahan JuragaSkracic MarkoMartina Markov PodvinskiŠime Jezina


Group 3 Our thesis for Murter island is as follows: if this island could feed in the past 8000 people and the recent population is only half of that, we only have to reconstruct things. This means no new construction, but transformation. This means that abandoned objects and landscapes should be renovated. Extensions by new buildings we think is just necessary for renting, but we do not want and need new buildings. On the island there is not one square centimeter that is untouched by humans, so the complete island is anthropogenic. In the period when 8000 people live on Murter island, they live from agriculture and cattle breeding. This means that the land which was not build was pasture lands and agricultural fields. This is also the case on the Kornati islands: everything piece of land was cultivated. The generations of today and the future have the duty and rights to use the land and sea as it was used in the past. The fact that we are abusing it in making the decisions is not based on the amount of things we are doing, but the egocentricity of the way we deal with it. We want to live luxurious and easy, without taking care for the future of our next generations. So we propose the revitalization of the anthropogenic area, which is not possible in a sectoral way. So we should renovate the olive groves and connect it to tourism. This means that the one who restores his land for olive growing (approximately 100 olive trees), could have the right to build a house as well. This house for tourism purposes is neccessary to make the restoration profitable. This is the only way to revitalize the landscape, because it has a broad economical basis. The center of the olive cultivation tradition should be in the town of Murter. In the past people from Murter went to the mainland (Modrave) by boat. This tradition should be restored as well.

PARTICIPANTS

Slobodan SkraćićFilip HemakMarija Schellenberg-PleslićFranka RameśaBoris BašičMiljenko MeštrovAnte JuretaIzo Pleslic

Sketch with images

Sketch without images


CONCLUSIONThis workshop was an important step in our thesis process for several reasons:

• It gave us the opportunity to tell people about our projectWith the help of this workshop we could people explain our field of study and the need for projects like this. For us this is important because with our thesis we want that it make sense in the real world instead of just having scientific utility.

• It helped us understanding local issues and opinionsDespite the language barrier and the lack of a discussion due to time limits, we gained more knowledge about issues and opinions of the local stakeholders about future tourism developments. The input of the locals we will take into account in our further design process.

• It supported our sustainable approachThe picture rating shows that 11% of the unsustainable pictures were ‘liked’, while 82% of the sustainable pictures were ‘liked’ for the future of Murter Island. This means that there is a demand for a sustainable approach in making spatial tourism development plans/designs. • It gave us the opportunity to test our ideas by comparing them with the ones of local people.The spatial plans of the groups have a lot of similarities with ideas we already had, such as a better network of paths, the re-introduction of wine groves, the restoration of agricultural land and the improvement of certain public spaces. But there were also new ideas which inspired us. One example was the he idea to make the agricultural sector more important by expressing local traditions and landscape. Furthermore the presentations supported the selection of our design location for the next phase: Slanica bay, the harbour front of Murter and the Školjic environment with LucicaPodvrsak bay. In general, these places are marked as potential places for new sustainable tourism developments.

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TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ON MURTER ISLAND A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PRESPECTIVE