NORD Fieldcourse Häädemeeste Case-Study Hajime Nomura, Lisa Odland, Mari-Liis Alviste, Taavi Julkunen

Background (1) Figures ●2608 inhabitants (Häädemeeste Municipality) ●211 inhabitants (Treimani village) ●28 SHOs (Treimani village) ●Latvian border (6km) / Pärnu (60km) / Riga (120km) Features ●Out-migration of young people ●Economic activity in Treimani: fishery, small-scale farms, and tourism

Background (2) “Romantiline Rannatee” LEADER project ●“Links between the rural economy and development actions-program” ●Promote Pärnu’s 250km long coastline for recreational use and tourism ●website provides information about the accommodation, services, happenings, involved municipalities, and vacation opportunities ●Challenge: lack of analytical data

Research Questions 1)How seasonality affects local businesses and services? -second house owners involvement in local business 1)How seasonality influences environmental issues? -concerns arising from the seasonal fluctuation of visitors to the region

Theoretical Framework Seasonality: ●Structural factors o weather, length of day, holidays (Baron, 1975; Butler, 2001; Granger, 2001) ●Internal factors o taking place within persons, ‘biological clock' (Silm and Ahas, 2010) Impacts of Seasonality in Tourism: ●Positive impacts: Creation of new jobs, new business ventures ●Negative impact: Uneven distribution of income across the year Second house in Treimani

Methodology ●Semi-structured interviews (with a pre-established set of questions) ●15 Interviewees o 7 Seasonal Residents o 6 Permanent Residents o 2 Municipal Politicians ●Background study: statistical and spatial data o land-use plans for the local beach o maps of second houses in the Treimani area

Result and Analysis (1) Connection with Seasonality ●Social Concerns (demographic) a.After secondary school students leave Treimani b.This accelerates the aging population demographic c.Hard to cope with seasonal labour demands d.Balancing a strong local community, while welcoming visitors ●Economic Concerns a.Seasonal fluctuations in demand of local services b.Lack of employment (particularly seasonal employment)

Result and Analysis (2) Environmental Concerns ●Noise and littering (only a small minority of the summer visitors) ●Fishery is polluting the sea o Burying their fish waste in the beach o Seagulls gather around the fish waste. o Mess near residential areas o Pollution from fishery New beach land-use plan ●In order to make the land use more reasonable in the beach area -Take part in a clean-up event on the beach voluntarily - -Less parking problem near the beaches -

Conclusion -Seasonality has enormous impacts on Treimani economically, environmentally and indirectly societally -If second house owners wish to be involved in local community and decision making they are welcomed -Conflicts between different stakeholders in the area are rather minimal -Second house owners are active in the protection of the beach and nature