Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In temporal and spatial terms, Tunstall and Penning-Rowsell (1998) found that beach
visits not only are experienced differently but also have different meanings. This varied
according to residents, day visitors and tourists. For residents, the beach was a local
leisure resource, a regular and routine element of their everyday lives (similar to parks for
urban-dwellers). For the day visitor, the beach was construed as a special event, an
occurrence perhaps experienced only a couple of times a year. For holidaymakers, it is a
special experience, but one often repeated with tourists who return to the same location
year on year. What is culturally significant with a beach visit is the way in which it can
enable the visitor to recollect childhood memories and a process repeated through time by
families. It also marks a social occasion, with large proportions arriving by car as groups
of two to four. In the summer season, beach visits are interconnected with families and
young children. Even so, the beach readily accommodates solitary visitors, and in some
locations up to one-third of users were unaccompanied. In this respect, the beach can
function like a park with its ability to accommodate a multitude of users.
The amount of time spent at the beach varied by resort, with the majority of people
spending less than four hours on the beach. It was typically between two and four hours
in duration. Beach activities included a diversity of marine activities (sailboarding,
jetskiing for a minority) through to a common range of activities including
• sitting/sunbathing/picnicking on the beach
• sitting/sunbathing/picnicking on the promenade
• swimming/paddling
• walking/strolling on the promenade/cliffs
• long walks of 3 km or more
• informal games or sports
• walking the dog
• playing with sand, stones and shells.
(modified from Tunstall and
Penning-Rowsell 1998)
This shows that while activities are important, so are relaxing and passive pastimes. This
seminal study by Tunstall and Penning-Rowsell (1998:330) recognised not only that
'English beaches are important to the English' but also that environmental concerns for
pollution and the quality of the resource are important to recreationalists, tourists and
residents alike. The following assessment by Tunstall and Penning-Rowsell (1998:331)
really encapsulates the wider meaning, significance and value of the beach.
The English seaside and its beaches are special because they are special places to play,
to relax, to exercise or to enjoy. They bring back memories—mainly of families and
childhood. They are places of discovery and adventure, and contact with nature. Their
meanings come from these imaginings and these activities, and from the repeated visits to
the same familiar and reassuring locales. Their beaches have a coherence that derives
from their enduring physical character—waves, tides, sand and noise and from the
assemblage of features that keeps them there: the sea-wall, the promenade and the
groynes. Each is understood and valued, for its timelessness and familiarity.
A number of novel studies of beach behaviour by non-geographers have also been
undertaken (Carr 1999) which explore the youth market and their behaviour within
resorts (e.g. Ford and Eiser 1996), particularly the meaning and significance of the beach
