Płaszczyzna ekonomiczna procesu urbanizacji turystycznej na przykładzie wybranych miejscowości strefy podmiejskiej Łodzi

Abstract

The article presents one of the aspects of tourist urbanization, leading to versatile transformations of rural space into urban space, under the influence of tourism. A number of processes existing in the economic dimension have been described at the example of 24 municipalities, located in Łódź’s suburban zones, with significantly developed recreational function. The described economic con-sequences of tourist urbanization have been identified with the transfer of capital between cities and studied villages, mainly due to cities’ inhabitants’ recreational migrations. Guidelines presented by E. Dziegieć (1995) have been applied. In the economic speculations, the issues related to people’s professional structure were deliberately omitted, with the assumption that the measure used so far is not sufficient to express all the observed processes. Other phenomena not taken into account include, among other things: revenue in commercial and service institutions as well as revenue from private accommodation rental, due to a limited access to data. The focus was set on the analysis of real estate commerce, construction industry and construction investments as well as activities of individual commercial entities in the selected tourist-recreational municipalities of Łódź’s suburban zone. In order to do that, the offers of plot and real estate sales have been compared, taking price changes into account. Based on the survey studies, the main motives and sources of land plot sales were determined. The number and type of building permits for holiday houses and all-year houses, issued in years 1999–2004, as well as the number of establishments commissioned during that time was analysed. An attempt at estimation of economic benefits for this area (profits for the communes) from real estate taxes was made. The activities of individual economic entities was also described through their comparative study, according to their number, time of creation, specificity (type of activity) and the place of their occurrence as well as the location of company’s headquarters (identified with owner’s address). Economic urbanization of suburban zones is determined by their location in relation to cities and communication trails – the closer they are located, the quicker the transformation of villages (Jakóbczyk-Gryszkiewicz 1998). In Łódź’s suburban zone, as well as in case of other large Polish cities (such as Warsaw, Wrocław or Tri-City), an intensified real estate market activity is observed, including construction industry market and land plot sales. It is a classic example of progressing urbanization processes in the rural areas. This phenomenon is spatial, social and economic in its nature. The emerging buildings, mostly residential, are different from the usual rural constructions in terms of their architecture and size. They are mainly erected and populated by the wealthy city inhabitants. Together with them, numerous companies (mostly service industry) also move to the suburban zone. New commercial entities are also beginning to emerge. All these investmens mirror the volume of the funds installed and stand for the economic dimension of the urbanization process. The number of existing buildings, as well as the level of technical infrastructure’s development show the rank of a municipality and can affect its popularity, which results in higher land value. Suburban lands will gain more value, considering the decrease in the amount of good locations, with an increasing tendency of wealthy people’s migration outside city limits. Many people consider buying a plot of land now, even without having financial capability of constructing a new house. At the same time, a large number of building permits, issued in recent years, confirms the huge interest in the construction of new houses, especially all-year houses. It also confirms the trends, connected with the need of migration of people from the cities towards suburban areas. The most frequently selected municipalities include those, which allow close contact with nature, but at the same time are moderately developed. Such requirements are met by the tourist-recreational municipalities near Łódź. That is why the number of building permits and thus the number of newly-built establishments and inhabitants increase rapidly. Their presence will probably exert more and more pressure on the surrounding environment, for example on the type and volume of building development or the condition of infrastructure, which would be reflected in a financial dimension. Therefore, the urbanization processes will be developing even more intensively in the suburban area, not only in an economic aspect.