Swanage Geography Coursework

This is the first of the 2 hypotheses I am going to be focusing on in my coursework, I will be using a variety of graphs and relevant statistics to prove my hypothesis. Throughout my coursework you will notice how I will link back my explanation towards my hypothesis and give my opinion of how shops in Swanage need tourist’s to be able to run their business successfully.
* Retail Opportunities In Swanage Urgently Need To Be Redeveloped To Take Into Account The Needs Of Local Population
This will be the second of the 2 hypothesises I will be focusing on and developing as well. This hypothesis is about redeveloping shops in Swanage that need to be redeveloped; I will be working on this near the end of my coursework as I do see areas which are in desperate need of improvement. As I developing the areas of Swanage which need developing I will give explanations as to why I made that choice and what positive impacts can come from it.

Site Map of Swanage
For my coursework I was asked to produce a Site Map of Swanage which shows the 6 different areas of the area.
* Tourist Facilities
* Retail Streets
* Holiday Flats
* Hotels
* Residential Leisure
* Residential Houses
As you can see from figure 1.2 I took the liberty of colour coding these areas so that it would be easier to analyse later for future reference in my coursework. From the Site Map you can see that there is large amount of Tourist Facilities. This further proves my hypothesis 1 which I will discuss later in my coursework.
Why is Swanage a Tourist Attraction?
Swanage is a place where it is unlikely for you to walking around aimlessly doing nothing; this is one of the reasons why tourists enjoy visiting the area. There are a lot of things tourist’s could involving themselves with in Swanage. They could visit the beach or go to the retail stores or just relax and enjoy the scenery. The main reason why people would go to Swanage is simply because it is both affordable and enjoyable le which are the two important factor of a vacation. Tourism is very important in Swanage because without it the facilities that are being opened in Swanage will eventually close down due to no profit thereby no developments will be made, which will make swanage a place that wouldn’t be nice to visit.
Geology of Swanage Beach
In Figure 1.3 you can see it is fairly detailed geological diagram of swanage beach, it also shows all the rocks involved within the beach which will be useful to most geographers.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF SWANAGE
On this Page in my coursework I will give statistics and graphs about some of the relevant information on Swanage like population, Employment Rate, Age Structure etc. From these results it should give me a clear indication about Swanage and its history.
Population of Swanage
In Figure 2.1 it shows both the statistics and the graph of the Population of Swanage as you can throughout the years is has increased in population. However from the year 1921-1931 there was a major decrease in population. This is probably due to people migrating out of the area because of expenses of houses or people just simply wanted to move out. From 1951 to 2001 there is a constant increase meaning in the future Swanage will overpopulate due to the large tourists and residents.
2001 Census Data for Swanage
In Figure 2.2 you can see that it shows both statistics and graphs for the population of Male and Females in Swanage and Dorset. Obviously Swanage is a smaller area than Dorset so Dorset’s results will obviously be greater in population. In both areas Females have a higher population than Males. The reason for this is probably because there are more retail shops that attract for Females than Males.
Age Structure
This Graph shows the Age structure of people from both Dorset and Swanage. From Figure 2.3 you can see that the people from (18-44) and (60-84) have the highest amount of %. This shows that middle aged people live in Swanage and Dorset than Older or Younger people. This means that most residential people who live in Swanage have Jobs or have Part-time Job and owns a house or an apartment. There are hardly any 16-17 yr olds also there aren’t that many elderly people as well.
Conclusion
From all of the statistics I have I will make a final conclusion that Swanage will gradually increase in population which would have more females than males. Also most of the residents would have Jobs because most of the population in Swanage are aged form 18-84.
EXTENT OF TOURISM
The Importance of Tourism
In Swanage Tourism is especially important as that is what keep the area going “money-wise”, without tourism the town would not get no profit therefore will not be able to develop their area. From the land use map there is a pattern which shows how the shops for Tourist’s are near the beach as the beach is the most popular sight in the area. This is what will get tourists motivated to shop in the area. In summer time the tourist visiting rate will increase as the scenery will seem better due to the fact that the weather is beautiful.
Who benefits from tourism?
The retail store owners would partly benefit from tourism as they are gaining profit from their business which will help them for the future. The whole area of swanage will benefit from tourism as well because with their money Swanage will be able to further develop into something better.
TOURIST QUESTIONNAIRE
For my coursework I was asked to create a questionnaire based on the tourists of swanage I asked a range of different questions based on relevant information I needed to find out. On this page I will focus on a few questions in particular that will help prove my first hypothesis. The first question I came across is in figure 4.1 it was to find out which shops tourists use when they are shopping. As you can see from the graph the two highest selected Shops were Restaurants and Supermarkets.
This Graph tells me that most people would visit Supermarkets and restaurants while they are in swanage. This doesn’t surprise because on the geography I came a across a handful of Supermarkets and Restaurants for Tourists to visit so this is an obvious result. So far this proving my hypothesis because restaurants and Supermarkets are the essential thing’s a tourist needs so the retail stores would make those types of shops accessible for tourists.
This is another question that I have been focusing on in the questionnaire. What this Pie Chart is telling is that because of the impact of tourism, tourism has influenced the area to change the way they run their shops. This is a positive impact as this will persuade more tourists to visit because of the demands previous tourists have made. As you can see from the graph because of tourism there are more restaurants opening and gift shops are opening as well. These are popular retail store for tourist which explains the results.
This is the final question I will be bringing forward for discussion as this is one of the most important questions. As you can see from the Pie Chart Tourists would like Easier Car Parking Overall, this is very understandable because on week days and weekends tourists would want to visit shops however the only things delaying their shopping time is Parking. If Tourist’s have more parking then more Tourists will be able to shop thereby giving more profit towards swanage. Another improvements that the tourists have mention was the fact that most of the shops need to be open of Sunday’s this will give them more shopping time to do last minute shopping which is bound to happen at one point or another. If they put this improvement forward swanage will gain more profit.
RESIDENTS QUESTIONNAIRE
This is one question I chose from the residents Questionnaire which shows which area Residents visit to shop in the surrounding area. Wareham was the most mentioned. The reason for this is because there is more variety of shops to visit which would keep local people interested. I would imagine that it would closer to their work so the journey would be easier. Another key reason why residents would want to shop elsewhere besides Swanage is because there us easier parking so they will be able to visit shops faster.
This is one issue that will lead more local people to shop elsewhere besides swanage the reason being, no good car parking facilities. From the Pie chart it shows that 78% think that there no car parks being provided for local people. As I said before because of this issue swanage will lead local people out of the area due to the fact that they have nowhere to park their cars.
These are the improvements suggested by the residents of Swanage; overall it is similar to the Tourist’s improvements as both mentioned Car Park as their main concern. Both would rather excellent Car Parking than Shops, I imagine both residents and tourists are annoyed with Car Parks which is the reason they brought it up in the questionnaires. One improvement mentioned in the resident questionnaire which relates back to figure 2.2 is that people require more hairdressers. Because there are more females than males in swanage it is quite obvious that women would be demanding more womanly stores.
Conclusion
Gathering information from both Questionnaire it is safe to say that the main improvement it Car Parks which is an understandable request. People from swanage should take this on board and make a bigger car park in swanage. They have not got anything to lose because more car parks means more people which means more shoppers which eventually lead to money that they can use to redevelop swanage.
RETAIL MAP OF SWANAGE
Conclusion
As you can see from the annotations I have made you can get a clear idea of the types of shops open on Institute road and Station road. Institute road would be a great place for tourist’s as there are more shops which would be suitable for them, Residents would not find shops on Institute road helpful as they are specifically aimed at tourist to persuade them to stay in swanage and the way to do that is to feed them with cheap advertisements. Residents would prefer shops on Station Road as there are shops that are aimed at residents as well as Tourist’s so everyone would be satisfied on station road.
OPENING AND CLOSING TIMES OF SHOPS
THE SECOND HYPOTHESIS
Retail Opportunities in Swanage urgently need to be redeveloped to take into account the needs of local population
This is the second hypothesis I will be focusing on and developing as well. This hypothesis is about redeveloping shops in Swanage that need to be redeveloped; I will be working on areas which are in desperate need of improvement. As I developing the areas of Swanage which need developing I will give explanations as to why I made that choice and what positive impacts can come from it. The main reason I am going to improve swanage town is because of the improvements people have stated in both the resident questionnaire and tourist questionnaires. The improvements they have made are realistic and true towards the area of swanage.
Why would you improve swanage?
There are many reasons as to why people would want to improve swanage the obvious reason is to make the living conditions better and the facilities to be more flexible with the needs of residents and tourists. Gathering information from the both questionnaires I feel that swanage does need improving. Better Car Parking would be a huge improvement as most people feel that is a huge downfall in swanage, there is never enough parking. More variety of shops is one suggestion that also seems to be popular in the tourist questionnaire which is understandable as tourists visit areas to shop not to be bored. Opening and Closing times of shops in another issue in swanage, it seems that shops close too early for residents so shops need to be opened later for all people to do last minute shopping. My development plan will support most of those improvements to make swanage a better area to visit.
DEVELOPMENT PLAN EXPLANATIONS
Development 1 and 2 – These are the first two improvements I have made, I have added two retail shopping areas. The reason why I did this is, is because in the residential questionnaire a large number of residents requested shopping areas that will also be open longer to accommodate the times of residents. The types of shops that will be around here are sports shops because that was also requested in the questionnaire a large amount of residents wanted this.
Development 3 – As I said before in the previous explanation a handful of people wanted sports shops so I assumed that they would want leisure facilities as well. Because there are more Females than Males in Swanage it is only natural that some of the residents would request leisure facilities for football or basketball etc.
Development 4 – This is the biggest request that the residents have made clear in the questionnaire; there wasn’t enough parking throughout swanage I have taken that complaint onboard and have now added a Free Car Parking facility for residents only. Because of this residents will find it easier to get to the shops without any hassle. Since residents already live in the area it would be foolish to pay for their own parking which is why I made car parking free, this was another improvement mentioned in the questionnaire.
Development 5 – This is the area that will be having the food market once a week this is another request mentioned in the questionnaire I thought it was a good idea as it would give residents a chance to get food useful for their homes.
Development 6 – Hairdressers will be added here because there are not enough hairdressers in the area so adding hairdressers will support the improvement of swanage
Development 7 – This will be a huge Supermarket for all residents to support all there need whether it is food or clothes etc. Residents would really appreciate this as there are never enough supermarkets in swanage. This will improve swanage because more people will shop thereby putting more money into the swanage development.
Development 8 – This will be the pedestrian path leading to the Supermarket people complain about there being too many cars which could get dangerous for most people
Development 9 – This is the final improvement I will make in swanage, this area will be the picnic area/quiet area for residents who would just like a relaxing day. It is away from the supermarket so there will no collision with the people who want to relax and the people that want to shop. I would imagine this was requested by the older people of swanage
These are the final improvements I have towards swanage based on the results of the questionnaire. On the next page of this coursework I will justify my coursework giving reason as to why it is effective and fits the needs of residents and if it will benefit them or not.
JUSTIFICATION OF PLAN
On this page I will evaluate my plan giving reason for why it is good plan and why I placed those specific facilities on the plan. I will also write about who benefits from the result of my plan.
Why is my Plan Good?
I feel my development plan is well planned out because I have placed facilities according to what people have said in the questionnaire, I took that on board on what the people wanted and added that in my plan. The Car Park issue from before as now been resolved because of my plan, there is now a huge Car Parking facility which is free for residents, so I managed to improve in two ways. Another way my plan is good is because I added a large supermarket for residents to use. Residents would find this very useful as they mentioned this in questionnaire. Most of the facilities did not take much thought it was mostly commence sense and guidance from the tourist and residential questionnaire.
Who will benefit?
Many people will benefit from this improvement change, one group in particular would be the elderly people because I have added a quiet area away from the excitement where people can relax and enjoy the day. Residents would appreciate this, as they can be in a clam environment which would calm them down if they were stressed. The male groups will benefit because I have added a leisure facility for all popular sport, for men who like sport this is one improvement that will make swanage for enjoyable. For the female groups I have added hairdresser facilities, women from swanage will appreciate this change because there are hardly any hairdressers in swanage and having one near residential houses will benefit residential women.
What do I think my plan overall
Overall I feel my plan is good because it satisfies the needs of residents and there won’t be any collisions with tourist shops. Everyone will be satisfied in the area they are in since the change I made to swanage.
CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION
Conclusion
After all information gathered from questionnaires and statistics I have come to the conclusion that my hypothesis has been proven due to the fact that most all tourist and residents gave listed improvements for swanage. All the data analyzed led me to this conclusion and I feel I made that my conclusion has been proven.
Although the conclusion I managed to come up with was true there are still areas in my coursework that I feel can improved. The explanations I gave for my maps and graphs could have been explained better with more evidence to prove my point. The statements I gave for development could’ve been explained more clearly but was still a satisfactory effort.
Evaluation
Overall I would say my project would be graded from a B to an A because I followed the criteria given and gave evidence to prove my point. I created diagram and graphs to prove another point. However as I said there are still areas for improvement which is the reason for the grade I have given.