Internal Assessment

IB Geography Fieldwork

Research Question:

To what extent has tourism tourism had a positive impact on the mountain community of

Riederalp, Switzerland?

Villa Cassel, Pro-Natura Zentrum Aletsch, Riederalp (October 2018)

Subject and level: Geography HL

Personal Code: hcv176

Session: May 2019

Word Count: 2’500

Contents page

1. Field Work Question & Geographical Context………………………………..……………p2

2. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………...p6

3. Data Presentation and Analysis………………………………………………………………...p11

4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………..p20

5. Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………………………………p22

6. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….………….…p24

7. Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………….…… p25

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 Fieldwork Question and Geographical Context:

Tourism is an important sector of the Swiss economy which accounts for 2.8% of country’s

GDP and employs nearly 4% of the working population1.

Switzerland has been a popular destination for winter tourism for over 150 years; however,

most tourists arrive in summer2.

Tourism brings economic benefits to Switzerland such as economic growth. It narrows the

gap between “core and periphery” (rural and urban areas) in terms of economic

development. However, tourism may also have negative impacts: damaging the

environment, widening the wage gap in the country. The study will emphasise the

importance of sustainable tourism management for the economic, environment and social

benefit.

The fieldwork investigation will focus on Riederalp, Switzerland to evaluate the effect the

development of tourism has on the mountain community of Riederalp. Thus, our fieldwork

question will be as follows: “To what extent has tourism has tourism had a positive impact

on the mountain community of Riederalp, Switzerland?”.

1 EDA, Swiss Confederation, 2017

2 Trading Economics, “Swiss Tourist Arrivals”, 2018
2
Fig. 1. Map showing location of Switzerland in Europe.

Fig. 2. Map locating Riederalp in Switzerland

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The development of tourism in Riederalp dates back to 1812; however, the growth of

tourism started with the arrival of Sir Ernest Cassel (1895) and accelerated when the first

cable car was installed in 1950s. Currently, Riederalp has a total population of 481 3. Since

the 1970s the village has been a popular destination for skiing and hiking, hence it is a good

location for the investigation of the impacts of tourism on a small mountain community.

Fig. 3. Base map of Riederalp, where A – ski piste, B – village.

The fieldwork investigation will correspond to Section 4: Managing Tourism and Sport for

the Future, the consequences of unsustainable touristic growth in rural and urban tourism

hotspots and Section 3: Managing Extreme Environments, opportunities and challenges for

3 Swiss Federal Statistics Office, Swiss Confederation, 2017

4
tourism in extreme environments (Leisure, Sport and Tourism and Extreme Environments

optional themes).

Word Count: 299

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Methodology:

The following hypothesis were created to help answer the Research Question (RQ) which is

evaluating the extent to which tourism has impacted Riederalp. The evaluation was

sectioned into three parts: environmental, economic and social.

Hypothesis 1 helps to evaluate the impact of tourism on the environment of Riederalp:

● Hypothesis 1:

○ Environmental degradation will be greater on- piste than off-piste:

■ Greater soil erosion will be observed on-piste.

■ Vegetation cover will be lower on-piste;

Hypothesis 2 focused on evaluation of the extent to which the economy of the Riederalp

was impacted:

● Hypothesis 2:

○ Tourism will positively impact the economy of the study area:

■ The income of most of the locals will be dependent on

tourism;

■ Most locals will agree that tourism brings economic benefits

and development as well as higher incomes.

The following hypothesis is aimed to examine the impact of tourism on social life of the

village:

● Hypothesis 3:

○ The number and types of services offered in the study area will be

more oriented to tourism.

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To prove the hypotheses a range of qualitative and quantitative data will be collected to

determine economic, social and environmental impact of tourism on Riederalp.

Study area A was used for collection of environmental data on soil erosion and vegetation

cover.

Fig. 4. Field Sketch of Study Area A.

The field sketch shows the ski piste where the data was collected (on the right).

Study area B was used for a population survey that focused on people’s perception of the

economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism. An environmental survey was

conducted to help evaluate the impact of economic development on the village

infrastructure.

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 1. Environmental Data:

Stratified line sampling was used to ensure that both on- and off-piste data was collected.

The measurements were performed with 20m intervals between transects to obtain a

representative and reliable sample enabling us to evaluate the condition of the soil on the

ski piste accurately.

● Measuring soil erosion:

Fig. 5. Methodology used for data collection on soil erosion

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 ● Measuring vegetation cover:

Same sampling as for soil erosion was used to measure the percentage of

vegetation cover.

Fig. 6. Showing the methods used to measure vegetation cover.

2. Population survey:

To determine and evaluate social, economic and environmental impact of tourism the data

was collected in the village of Riederalp (Study Area B, Fig.3):

1. A survey was divided into 3 parts: Environmental, Social, Economic.

2. Visitors, temporary and permanent residents of the village were asked to evaluate

the extent to which tourism has social and economic impact on the village.

Permanent residents were able to give more data about economic, social and

environmental impacts, because of their observations throughout the whole year.

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 Visitors and temporary residents could provide an unbiased opinion on the

environment of the village.

3. Most of the questions were answered using a Likert scale from 1 to 4 to prevent

people from giving neutral answers, which would not permit to evaluate the impacts

of tourism on Riederalp.

Word Count: 480

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Data Presentation & Analysis:

● Hypothesis 1:

○ Environmental degradation will be greater on- piste than off-piste:

■ Greater soil erosion will be observed on-piste.

Fig. 7: Graph showing ski-piste erosion.

According to the data presented in Fig. 7, the erosion throughout ski-piste is evident. The

soil is eroded in the middle and the southern side of the slope (between 7.5m and 15m

across a transect), meaning that these are the parts where the greater pressure from skiing

is exerted.

Soil erosion is a negative impact caused by skiing as it contributes to a change in landscape,

making the area look less attractive to tourists in summer. It refers to the RQ because, in the

long-term, this may result into local businesses losing profits during the summer season,

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which shows the impact tourism has on the environment, proving the hypothesis stated

above right.

■ Vegetation cover will be lower on-piste;

Fig. 8. Graph showing vegetation cover on the ski piste.

Fig. 8 shows that the highest average vegetation cover is on the edges (up to 72%) and

middle of the slope (up to 62-63%). This could be explained by prior skiing knowledge: the

highest pressure is exerted when the skiers turn on the edges of the ski pistes by shifting

their center of gravity from one ski onto another. Pressure may lead to the damage of the

plants that are covered in snow or soil run-off which leads to uprooting the roots of the

plants and/or carries away the seeds.

Loss of vegetation cover can speed up the process of soil erosion as plant roots hold soil

together as well as help water infiltration preventing flash floods which can then damage

the infrastructure of the village. In turn, the damage of local infrastructure will lead to

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financial losses for the local businesses. Also, loss of vegetation cover, can make the area

look less attractive during summer, which may later damage the local economy.

Also, it can be seen that the vegetation cover on the northern side (left) is higher (around

72%) than in the southern side (left, around 61%). This ties with the data shown in Fig. 7,

where soil erosion is higher on the southern side, meaning that most of the skiers pass by

the left side of the piste.

It is possible that there is a relationship between soil erosion and vegetation cover. To

determine whether there is a significant relationship between the two sets of data

Spearman’s Rank (rS) is used. Transects A (walking path present) and F (152cm hill present)

will be excluded from the calculation as they can be biased and can alternate the result of

the test. If rS is positive, then the relationship between the two data sets will be considered

positive, while a negative sign of rS will signify that the relationship is negative. In this

investigation, the confidence level of 95% (p-value=0.05) is used, while the null hypothesis

(H0) of the investigation is that “there is no significant relationship between soil erosion and

vegetation cover”. The value of rS is calculated using an online calculator4, it will then be

compared to the given confidence level, hence, if the value of r S is bigger or equal to p-

value=0.05, then we reject the null hypothesis, meaning that the relationship between the

two data sets is significant.

Calculations:

Formula: Where: Results

2
6∑𝑑 n is the number of sample pairs n =55
𝑟𝑆 = 1 − d is the difference between degree of freedom = 55-2= 53
𝑛3 − 𝑛

4
Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient rs and Probability Value Calculator
(https://geographyfieldwork.com/SpearmansRankCalculator.html#DegreesofFreedom)

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 ranks ∑ 𝑑 2 = 31933
6 × 31651
∴ 𝑟𝑆 = 1 − = −0.152
553 − 55
∴ | 𝑟𝑆 | > 𝑝 = 0.05
∴Null hypothesis is accepted; there is no relationship between the two sets of data.

Fig. 9. Showing Spearman’s Rank calculation.

As can be seen from Fig. 9, the null hypothesis is accepted, meaning that there is no

statistical relationship between the two data sets.

Nevertheless, the scatter graph suggests that there is a relationship:

Fig. 10. Scatter graph showing a relationship between Vegetation Cover and Soil Erosion.

On the graph above we can see a downward sloping trendline, which suggest that a weak

negative relationship is present between the two data sets (A – soil erosion, B – vegetation

cover), meaning that the higher the soil erosion the lower is vegetation cover.

● Hypothesis 2:

○ Tourism will positively impact the economy of the study area:

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 ■ The income of most of the locals will be dependent on

tourism;

Fig. 11. Showing the responses from the local population on the source of their income.

Fig. 11 shows that 52.2% of the surveyed locals agree/strongly agree that their income is

dependent on tourism industry. Nevertheless, the rest of the respondents (47.8%)

disagreed/strongly disagreed with the statement. This is significant because it shows the

importance of tourism to the local economy, because a bigger half of the local population

relies on tourism for their income.

However, such high dependence of the local economy on tourism may be dangerous as

there is always a risk of “bad season” in winter or summer. Therefore, in case of a decline of

tourism more than a half of the population of the village will not have a proper income.

Decline of tourism can lead to problems of unemployment, poverty and, later, in rural to

urban migration.

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 ■ Most locals will agree that tourism brings economic benefits

and development as well as higher incomes.

Fig. 12. Responses from the local population on the effect of tourism on local economic

growth.

As represented in the graph, 95% of the local residents agreed/strongly agreed that the

local economy has benefited from tourism, which proves the hypothesis. Economic growth

can be seen as both a positive and a negative impact because it often brings employment

and higher standards of living, however it can cause uneven income distribution, and

therefore widen the wage gap in the local community.

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Fig. 13. Responses of local residents on income distribution.

Responses from Fig. 13 show that even though 70% of the surveyed permanent residents

agree that the income from tourism is distributed equally there are still people who

disagree or strongly disagree with the statement above, meaning that growing tourism

industry in Riederalp may not benefit all the locals. This may be because the jobs created by

tourism are taken by the people from surrounding villages. The manager of Golfhotel

Riederhof, one of the biggest Riederalp’s hotel, confirmed that most of their employees are

commuters, while only 3 of the employees are permanent residents.

We can conclude that even though the economy of the village is growing, the locals may not

fully benefit from the growth. Hence, we can see the that positive impact of tourism on the

local economy is limited. This conclusion helps answering the RQ as it partially proves

Hypothesis 2 and shows the extent to which tourism benefits Riederalp.

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 ● Hypothesis 3:

○ The number and types of services offered in the study area will be

more oriented to tourism.

Fig. 14. Map showing services in Riederalp.

On the map above, we can see that there are 8 times more tourism-related services (40

buildings), than there are services that would be mostly used by the locals (5 buildings). This

suggests that the infrastructure of the village is orientated for tourists, rather than for the

local residents, hence, emphasises Riederalp’s dependence on tourism. Furthermore, such

disproportion between local- and tourism-related services may suggest that the natural

limited resources of the village: water and energy, are overused by the tourists during

certain periods of the year, which can lead to increasing cost of living for local households

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Word Count: 1114

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Conclusion:

The investigation has shown that tourism has largely impacted Riederalp. Tourism has

become one of the major parts of Riederalp’s economy. It has provided development in

terms of infrastructure, economic prosperity and employment. However, tourism has had

negative impacts, such as environmental degradation. Exhaustion of natural resources can

lead to a failure of the tourism industry of Riederalp in the longer term.

However, the environmental problems started to arise. Thus, erosion and loss of vegetation

cover make the area look less attractive to tourists in summer therefore causing a decline of

tourism in Riederalp, provoking a decrease in the number of visitors in winter later on. Soil

erosion and loss of vegetation cover can be dangerous for the village as unstable, eroded

soil cannot absorb much water causing flash floods that could damage the infrastructure of

Riederalp. It is clear that management of winter tourism is required. It can be done through

limiting the number of visitors by imposing taxes on hotels or ski-passes.

Another negative impact of tourism is that the economy of Riederalp is now dependent on

this industry as many of its residents claim tourism to be their major source of income. This,

along with environmental degradation, can affect the economy of Riederalp in a longer

term.

Overall, the positive impact of tourism on a mountain community of Riederalp is limited.

Due to the fact that economic development of the village is now dependent on tourism, it

can bring more problems in longer term in case a more sustainable solution of to preventing

environmental degradation is not found. The tourism in the village can be made more

sustainable by introducing energy sources: solar panels or wind power plants, as well as

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collecting melt/rainwater to reduce costs and the impact of the tourism on the local

environment.

Word Count: 299

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Evaluation:

The data collection was a complex process; some difficulties arose while trying to plan the

methodology.

The data for evaluation of environmental damage was collected from a section of one ski

piste. A larger sample (different pistes) would give more reliable data. The width of on- and

off-piste at each transect was different, affecting the quality of the data. This could be

improved by including more transects in the sample, hence making the average values more

accurate.

In addition, the presence of bushes, stones when measuring soil erosion obstructed

installation of the transects. Thus, the results obtained from Transect F (hill present on the

south of the piste, causing 152cm elevation) altered the accuracy of the average.

Improvements could be made if the transect was moved up/down several meters to avoid

abnormalities such as in Transect F.

Another challenge arose when surveying the local population. As most of the population of

Riederalp speaks German the survey was offered in English and German. This caused some

software problems, therefore the results had to be entered manually, meaning that there

was a risk of mistakes due to the human factor. The problem could be solved by creating

two separate surveys for German and English speakers and combining the data later.

Furthermore, a debate arose around the Likert scale. It was decided to not use the neutral

option to push people to either agree or disagree with a given statement. However, some of

the respondents disagreed with such a decision as they did not know/were not sure about

certain question.

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Finally, the RQ could be modified to make the study more focused on environment or

economy: “To what extent has tourism had an impact on the environment/economy of

Riederalp?” This would make data collection more accurate and detailed as there will be

more time available for collecting data on larger samples.

Word Count: 308

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Bibliography:

“The Development of Tourism”, Aletscharena, aletscharena.ch/life/culture/historical/

Ochsenbein, Gaby “150 Years of Winter Tourism in Switzerland.” SWI, 3 Jan 2015,

swissinfo.ch/eng/snow--sun-and-stars_150-years-of-winter-tourism-in-switzerland/41145682

“Permanent and non-permanent resident population by institutional units, citizenship (category),

place of birth, sex and age class”, STAT-TAB - interactive tables (FSO), Swiss Confederation, 2017,

pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/pxweb/en/px-x-0103010000_201/-/px-x-0103010000_201.px/?rxid=a596392c-

623e-4061-9e56-c082f19a928c

“Spearman's Rank-Order Correlation (Cont...).” Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Using SPSS

Statistics - A How-To Statistical Guide by Laerd Statistics, Laerd, statistics.laerd.com/statistical-

guides/spearmans-rank-order-correlation-statistical-guide-2.php. Last accessed: 28.02.2019

“Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient Rs and Probability (p) Value Calculator.” Barcelona Field

Studies Centre, geographyfieldwork.com/SpearmansRankCalculator.html. Last accessed: 28.02.2019

“Switzerland Tourist Arrivals | 1996-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar.” Trading Economics,

tradingeconomics.com/switzerland/tourist-arrivals.

“Tourism”, EDA, Swiss Confederation, 27 Nov 2017,

eda.admin.ch/aboutswitzerland/en/home/wirtschaft/taetigkeitsgebiete/tourismus.html

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Appendix:

Data Table on soil erosion

Data Table on vegetation cover

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Copy of the population survey questions:

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28
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Copy of treated survey results:

The development of tourism has negatively impacted the local

environment

Strongly
Disagree 9
Disagree 24
Agree 21
Strongly Agree 16

“Local resources are being overused by tourists”

Strongly
Disagree 11
Disagree 17
Agree 21
Strongly Agree 9

"There are too many tourists in winter"

Strongly
Disagree 5
Disagree 5

30
Agree 20
Strongly Agree 15

"There are too many tourists in summer"

Strongly
Disagree 22
Disagree 16
Agree 2
Strongly Agree 5

“There are too many buildings in Riederalp that make it look less like a
village”

Strongly
Disagree 11
Disagree 12
Agree 21
Strongly Agree 23

Money from tourism is distributed equally in the local economy

Strongly
Disagree 6
Disagree 8
Agree 14
Strongly Agree 10

“Your income is dependent on tourism”

Strongly
Disagree 19
Disagree 6
Agree 10
Strongly Agree 15

"Since tourism arrived in Riederalp, it has created many job opportunities"

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Strongly
Disagree 5
Disagree 4
Agree 13
Strongly Agree 28

"The local economy has grown from tourism”

Strongly
Disagree 0
Disagree 1
Agree 10
Strongly Agree 28

“Standards of living have increased from tourism"

Strongly
Disagree 1
Disagree 10
Agree 16
Strongly Agree 25

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