SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE TOURISM POTENTIAL IN BOURGAS DISTRICT

Ivan Tcholeev, Maria Vodenska

Summary
Tourism development is declared a priority in almost all district plans and in a great number of municipal strategies. In fact about half of the countrys territory has a considerable resource potential for tourism development. At the same time it is territorially concentrated, some territories being more attractive than others. There is a need of implementing various approaches for the specific territorial orientation of tourism development. With the help of the spatial analysis places with tourism potential in the district of Bourgas are identified.. The available information on selected criteria is used for the creation of a series of analytical theme maps outlining the zones with possible tourism development according to each of the chosen criteria. Through a systematic analysis of these maps a synthetic map of Bourgas district settlements with good potential for tourism development is constructed towards which the efforts for future tourism development should be directed.

Introduction
It has been emphasized in the concept of territorial development of tourism (2003) that planning tourism development is largely linked with the planning and policy of regional development. The role of tourism in the socioeconomic development of the country and in the achievement of a balanced regional development is getting more and more important. Tourism could influence its associated economic sectors in a positive way and could be one of the main factors in economic growth in the country and a possibility of supporting local and regional development in quite a few local communities. On the other hand, successful development of tourism depends directly on development of other sectors economics, culture, environment, transportation and communication. In the developing process of planning regional development in Bulgaria on a local, regional and national level, the orientation towards tourism is quite definitive. Tourism is set as a priority branch in almost all regional plans and in a great number of municipal strategies of development after 2000. Tourism is perceived as an important means of regional development and as an opportunity for development by most regions and municipalities in the country (as well as by some national planning documents), although in some cases this is not realistic or at least it is not thought through and substantiated well enough. In the existing planning documents however, no clear indication of tourism territorial distribution is given. Most frequently, the new activities in the framework of the policy of territorial management are directed towards the territories that are the most cultivated and perceived traditionally as the most attractive and having the highest potential for developing tourism. Practically, half of the countrys territory has a great resource potential for developing tourism. At the same time, it is territorially differentiated and concentrated, with some territories more attractive than others. But neither the tourism nor the regional policy give any direction in choosing criteria for outlining the areas with a potential for developing tourism. There is a need of implementing various approaches for the specific territorial orientation of tourism development in separate administrative units. The aim of the investigation is, using the spatial analysis, to identify the zones with a potential for developing tourism in Bourgas district and building up a spatial model of evaluating the potential of developing tourism in it. This is a fragment of the more general task of applying different methods to build up a spatial model, which could be used to make expert assessments of the availability of potentialities for developing an economic branch or for carrying out certain activities on a given territory. The main tasks, set in order to achieve the aim, include: Formulation and assessment of the signage system; Definition of tourism potential as a whole and of places with tourism potential in detail; Development and implementation of objectively verifiable spatial criteria for the choice and territorial determination of areas with tourism potential.

Basic formulations
The term tourism potential is widely used in the tourism literature but attempts for its precise scientific definition are scarce. Generally, tourism potential can be defined as the ability of an area (territory) to form a complete tourism product (a complex of material and nonmaterial elements to provide satisfaction of needs and benefits to the tourist, offered for consumption Krippendorf, 1980) and develop an economically vital tourism. It is not necessary for this ability to be displayed or realized at the present moment but it must exist, according to the knowledge of contemporaneous tourism. This ability depends on many factors. Above all, a territory must be attractive, it must interest potential visitors. This has to do, above all, with tourist resources (or resource potential), which are defined as the original (basic) sites and phenomena that attract tourist flows to a given destination. Through the resources a psycho-physical regeneration and enhancement of the erudition of tourists directly or indirectly, is implemented, through the services offered at their basis. (, , 2000). The resources alone, however, are not enough to prove that a territory has tourism potential or the ability of forming a tourism product. A tourist must be able to reach it comparatively easy (i.e. the position and accessibility of the territory are elements of the potential) and to get at least elementary services needed for his staying (which requires servicing installations such as food and accommodation facilities etc.). The functioning of such facilities requires the existence of adequate infrastructure, workforce etc. These factors are reflected as a whole in the definition of Gunn (1988) as areas with tourism development potential (destination zones), which are expected to have attractions (things to see and do), local communities (settlements) to provide services, goods, facilities and attractions, as well as transportation to secure the access to the area and in it. As was noted already, it is not necessary for all elements to be available to say that a territory has tourism potential. It is important that the tourism potential be available the development of the rest of the elements of service be possible. Bearing in mind the aims and the expected results of the present study it is important to state that practically every territory has certain tourism potential (for example, the industrial and military tourism). Practically every site or phenomenon can be a tourism resource in a specific situation. This is because there are many different types of tourism and each one of them is based on different resources or attractions, i.e. different territories have different potential for different types of tourism. Besides, this peculiarity is due to the heterogeneous tourism demand different segments of the tourism market look for different conditions and attractions which also affects the tourism potential of the territory. It is necessary to stress the fact that not all areas can develop economically vital tourism, i.e. tourism that considerable economic, social and other benefits and justify the investments needed and the succeeding expenses. Having in mind these conceptions of the nature of the tourism potential, the following definition for the places (areas) having such potential can be given. It outlines the criteria and to a great extent determines the steps in identifying these areas in the present study. The places having tourism potential must: Have tourism resources (attractions) allowing the attraction of considerable amounts of tourist flows, securing a short term or medium term economically effective development of tourism; Be situated relatively close to important centers of forming and distributing tourism demand. Tourism potential can be viewed conventionally as primary (resource) or potential in the narrow meaning of the word, and secondary, or potential in the broad meaning of the word including the position and accessibility of the territory, the availability of ecological problems, the contemporary level of development and cultivation etc.

Methodology
The methodical approach adopted here corresponds to the aim of the study and suggests three steps for identifying the places with tourism potential: Forming and evaluating the signage system; Choosing specific criteria and outlining the possible zones for tourism development corresponding to each specific chosen criterion; Systematically analyzing the created analytic maps and composing a synthetic map of the settlements in Bourgas district with a good potential for developing tourism. A main requirement is that the methods be clear and be based on objectively verifiable criteria and indicators. In order to comply with this requirement a simple method is used without applying more complex quantitative methods for evaluation which are, on principle, applicable to this aim. There are three mean groups of questions about the management of the process of working the information that are important: 1) questions about finding the aim; 2) questions about changing the aim; 3) questions about fulfilling the aim. The answers to the questions of the third group are used when examining all the information and operations we find necessary for formulating the process of working the information. The relation with the item deriving information from the cartographic message net in the framework

of map editing must not be omitted. To specify the groups and their function it is necessary to examine the thematic maps as a necessity: Presenting the aim: analysis of the structure of tourism as a territorial entity (Bourgas district); A question from the first group: is an analysis of this structure necessary and will it lead to solving other problems? A question from the second group: what information is necessary for the analysis and what operations should it be subject to? A question from the third group: which data base can the needed information be derived from? Is there any software for processing information that corresponds to the chosen way of working? Choosing indicators is based on examining and evaluating a considerable number of possible indicators. From these a limited number is chosen that are assessed as the most appropriate and the most informationally secured. The following criteria are used for the spatial analysis of tourism potential of the settlements in Bourgas district:

Existence of tourism resources and tourism sites

The existence of tourism resources and tourism sites is perceived as one of the most important indicators for evaluating the primary tourism potential based on both the natural and the manmade recreational tourism resources. Existence of water basins and streams on the territory (rivers and lakes) characterizes the existence of water resources as one of the main factors of tourist attraction. Due to the importance of sea recreation, respectively of seaside, the seaside zones are always included in the areas with a considerable primary tourism potential. Existence of forest areas is also included in the tourism resources. They characterize another important and complex factor of tourist attraction the forest vegetation with its healing and prophylactic role, influencing strongly the landscape diversity etc.

Tourist-geographic position and transport accessibility (proximity to airports, seaports, main roads)
This criterion characterizes the accessibility of the places with tourism potential from the sources of tourist demand and the possibility of reaching easily the tourist site. Proximity to big centers of tourist demand and big transportation centers facilitates access of the market, i.e. modifies the influence of the primary potential. Transport accessibility is a complex indicator that can be specified on the basis of specific indicators of accessibility with different types of transportation and through different transport routes. In the present study transport accessibility by using automobile (through on land roads 1st and 2nd class of the national road net), air and water transport has been chosen as the most representative indicators. This is based on the fact that these are the most used types of transport in developing tourism in Bourgas district both international and internal. Railroad transportation has a lesser and territorially limited role in servicing the tourist flows. The following sites are accepted as initial points in relation with which transport accessibility of the different settlements on the territory of the district is assessed: The public airports servicing passenger flights, and the passenger seaports (as main transport centers for servicing international tourist flows) in this case the city of Bourgas. The cities with population of more than 100 thousand people (as main centers of forming internal tourist needs, internal tourist demand and internal tourist flows) the city of Bourgas. The tourist-geographic position and transport accessibility are assessed on the following basis: The distance between the territory of the district (through the road net) and the cities with a population of more than 100 thousand inhabitants; The 100 km distance on the territory of the district (through the road net) from the civilian airport and the port of Bourgas; The 20 km distance of the territory of the district on both sides of the 1st and 2nd class roads.

Existence of ecological problems

Tourists look for an ecologically clean, non-polluted and unharmed natural environment to make their trip or vacation, so tourist activities take place mostly in ecologically clean territories. The existence of any ecological problem in a territory pollution with hard waste materials, water pollution, high soil acidity, disrupted and annihilated vegetation, noise pollution, existence of noxious emissions in the air etc. affect tourism development in it in a most negative way. Existence of ecological problems is one of the strongest restricting factors for modern tourism development and so they are an important criterion for assessing tourism potential.

The suggested method has a number of limitations originating from the time and resource limitations and to a great degree from the requirements for simplicity and preference of objective and verifiable indicators. Because of this the aim of the study is not the absolute value or ranging the potential of the examined areas but grouping them in relatively homogeneous groups. The results are subject to actualization, especially in respect of the secondary potential (including the degree of tourism development and cultivation).

Results
The spatial models that are composed are based on the understanding that they are appropriate and indispensable for revealing the tourist potential and more precisely for outlining the possible zones of tourism development in correspondence with every single criterion. The starting base of information made it possible to create different strata (fig. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7). A synthesized spatial model of the settlements in Bourgas district with a good potential for developing tourism, that are close to a 1st or 2nd class road or an airport, being close to tourism resources and out of zones with ecological problems at the same time, was created on the basis of these analytic maps (fig.8). This model shows the final result of the implemented GIS analysis. Through it some heterogeneous areas in the administrative district are outlined. Efforts and funds for developing tourist activities should be directed towards these areas with priority.

Conclusions:
1. The language of spatial models is viewed as an absolute necessity. The study of the map language is not implemented separately from the language of the tourist science and practice. This means that through great information capacity in the separate specific studies a big information frequency of the sign system is achieved. The use of graphic-semantic modeling in such a study should not be separated from the thematic geospatial and mathematic-cartographic side of modeling. These three components are in a direct interdependence which must be kept in mind. The results of the study suggest that, generally, the situation and accessibility of the tourist sites are not a strong restriction for the tourism development but despite of this there are considerable differences between them. We could say that they influence considerably most of all the tourist flows of short-term travels of Bulgarians and the secondary tourist flows originating from tourists with stationary stay at tourist sites and resorts on the seaside. Because of the limitations in time, financial resources and information availability, the results cannot be considered full and usable for different purposes in tourism development. The method cannot be considered fully applicable and ideal because it was developed in accordance to the abovementioned limitations.

2. 3.

4.

Fig. 1. Road Classification in Bourgas District

Fig. 2. Settlements in Bourgas District near main roads

Fig. 3. Settlements in Bourgas District with good transport accessibility and near tourist sites

Fig. 4. Settlements in Bourgas District near tourist resources

Fig. 5. Settlements in Bourgas District near an airport

Fig. 6. Tourist sites in Bourgas District

Fig. 7. Zones with ecological problems in Bourgas District

Fig. 8. Settlements in Bourgas District with good tourism potential

Literature
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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Ivan Tcholeev Sofia University St.Kliment Ohridski, Faculty of Geology and Geography Sofia 1504, 15 Tzar Osvoboditel Bld. Tel. 9308 441, Fax No 944 64 87, e-mail: tcholeev@gea.uni-sofia.bg Assoc.Prof. Dr. Maria Vodenska Sofia University St.Kliment Ohridski, Faculty of Geology and Geography Sofia 1504, 15 Tzar Osvoboditel Bld. l. 9308 375, Fax No 944 64 87, e-mail: maria@gea.uni-sofia.bg