Impacts and Risks of Global Change - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 52

Amenity migration
Globalization—with free mobility of persons, goods and capital—brought
new migrants to the mountain regions. They are looking for fresh air, healthy
environment, tranquility and local culture—and in some cases spirituality—
the amenities provided by mountain regions (Borsdorf 2009, Borsdorf
and Hidalgo 2009, Borsdorf et al. 2012). Thus they may be called amenity
migrants (Moss 2006) or lifestyle migrants (McIntyre 2009). Bourdeau (2008)
interprets amenity migration even as part of post-touristic trends. Some
authors estimate the migration reversal (from mountain exodus to mountain
immigration) as a sustaining force for mountains and their cultures (Moss
2006), others look more critically to this new trend (Borsdorf et al. 2011). It
started in the U.S., but is a wide spread phenomenon in many mountain
regions of the world, and also includes international migration.
Amenity migration often is motivated by the search of a paradise on
Earth. Among the senior migrants the desire of a retirement home is decisive,
among the economical active people those professions are dominant, in
which the place of work is arbitrary (medicals, lawyers, architects, etc.) or
digital channels of communication can be used for work.
Although researchers only recently started to analyze the phenomenon,
the literature is increasing rapidly. Amenity migration has been investigated
in the Alps, the Scandes, the Carpathians, Rocky Mountains in the U.S.
and Canada, the Andes, the Central American Cordillera, the Austrialian
and New Zealandian Alps and the Philippines, among others (for a
comprehensive overview see: Moss 2006 and Moss et al. 2008).
In a case study in the Chilean Andes based on their interests and
behaviour different types of amenity migrants could be differentiated.
Figure 3.9 gives an overview.
Impact on mountain tourism on local cultures
With summits, unique and rare fl ora and fauna, and a great variety of hill
and mountain cultures, the tourism potential of mountains is very high.
Tourism is one avenue where mountain specifi cities that are generally
considered constraints to development—remoteness, difficult access,
wilderness, insular cultures, and subsistence lifestyles—can be transformed
into economic opportunities. The example of the Alps, where tourism
already started in the beginning of the 19th century, demonstrated the
strong impact on economic growth, overcoming the economic problems of
the beginning of the industrial age. Being labour intensive, having relatively
high multiplier effects, and requiring relatively low levels of capital and
land investment, tourism can yield signifi cant benefi ts in remote and rural
areas where traditional livelihoods are under threat.