Impacts of Tourism in the Lake District

This Hub is all about the problems & advantages tourists have to a local town in the Lake District, named Ambleside. To find the town, look at the Google Map, at the bottom of this Hub.

Ambleside is a small town located in the West of the Lake District. The town is inside the National Park area, which defends natural environments and places from being overran by economics & destruction.

For many English tourists trying to spare a few pounds, it's the perfect place to go in the Summer. With adventurous mountain climbing, exciting bike riding, 5-star bed & breakfasts, brilliant lake trips and glacial research, there's a large amount to do in Ambleside.

AMBLESIDE'S PAST: In the 1800's, Ambleside's tops were still covered in snow and was not a "desirable" destination spot. In most cases, English families wanted to go somewhere where they could get a train or bus to, not a long distance travel. Ambleside is in the middle of no factories and a mere 200 houses - so it wasn't beneficial for many people working in factories.

In the 1870's farmers started using the land around Ambleside. It is said Ambleside's town was set up in 1873 by farmers and other community members - from there houses were established all across the town - from the ribbon lake to the near valleys.

It wasn't till around 1920 that people started visiting the town as a tourist destination. Many of these tourists were from rich backgrounds, normally large families would venture out to the small town for a few days as a family trip out. The town started opening gift, retail and food shops for the visitors.

By 1950, Ambleside had around 42 shops in the centre and had around 1,000 tourists coming per year. Many of the farmers families had went on to become shop owners in the town, or community members helping the town grow. In 1956 Ambleside started tours on the hilltops and valleys.

In the early 1970's, many people would take a bus or coach to Ambleside for a weekend or week to escape the towns, in 1972 it was estimated over 3,200 people went to Ambleside that year. Since 1930 there had been a steady increased in outside viewings. Ambleside was also marked as an ideal place for elders to buy houses, with a booming town centre and lovely piece and quiet on the outskirts; it was ideal!

I haven't got record of when Ambleside became a National Park Town. Probably when the Lake District was made a National Park. In 2000 Ambleside was notified to be a "honey-pot site" - which means it creates large amounts of profit without being a mainstream, or indeed primary tourist destination. Ambleside wasn't made to be a tourist destination, but tourism infected Ambleside from the start-up and many farmers and workers were happy with this. More money for them and less hard work for the sons and daughters of the farmers!

POSITIVE'S OF TOURISM:

Like you may have noticed - even though Ambleside wasn't created intentionally for tourism, everyone in the town were, and still are, dedicated to making Ambleside a profitable and large English tourist destination. Everyday there are more and more people venturing to Ambleside. You can see Ambleside have tried to get town shops involved in their community - with Greggs being in the town centre.

When I went to Ambleside with my school, we had to do a questionnaire for the Local Residents. We asked residents if tourists were responsible for a set off annoyances in the town, such as: litter, noise, congestion and others - for all of them, it was more than 50% that tourist were not to blame.

This shows while Ambleside is getting influxes of tourists everyday, they can handle it. Most local residents didn't seem at all bothered by the noise and litter - obviously showing that some tourists can respect where they're on holiday.

NEGATIVE'S OF TOURISM:

I had a little look round some of the shops and places in Ambleside, it's a dear shame to see some local places being shut down. When there, a sign was on an old local butchers. The sign read "To be made into a new Greggs" - the project was set out in 2009 and still hasn't started. Asking the question 'do the locals want another Greggs?'

That's the real question - do locals really want tourism to take over this town. They may have been okay with people coming to the town to trade their disposable income for their services, but when it's the outside trading with the outside, are Ambleside locals even a part of this?

Many local people did have problems with congestion - it is a major issue since Ambleside has little roads, not fit for hundreds and sometimes thousands of visitors. This, again, shows that maybe Ambleside just needs a breath, to calm them from the tourists and their polluting cars. On one street where there was bed&breakfasts there was 2 line full's of cars. Making the road so narrow the cars had to squeeze one way, causing endless congestion.

I don't think it's a problem, yet. The signs of problems brewing are definitely there and for all to see. For almost 100 years now, Ambleside has housed many a people and gave them a great holiday, but could they be housing too many? With people being told to try and take a home holiday, not a flight holiday - will this bring more and more tourists to the town? If so - will they cope?

I would say if they could build new roads, keep the old pubs and places intact and make Ambleside a touch cleaner, they'd be on the right track. Until then though, Ambleside is a wrecking ball away from another destroyed tourist town.