Recreational and Tourist Qualities of Submontane Resorts Within the Cracow Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The metropolitan area is a zone where the process of focusing on and concentrating around the central city is discernible in all aspects of residents’ lives and functioning of smaller towns. The population and businesses within the zone closest to the metropolitan centre are directly dependent on the main urban core, but as the distance grows, new internal links are created between satellite towns, yet they always remain with the impact zone of the agglomeration. Tourism and recreation are at the top of the list of available services, so the discussion on the future of small towns in the Cracow Metropolitan Area must focus on this branch of business activity. The concept of the metropolitan area has been present in our legislation for more than fifteen years now, and the area is determined and modified following the principle that it must be continuous and dense, the maximum distance from the centre of the metropolis to its outskirts must not exceed 50 km, i.e. on the average – the isochron of an hour’s drive by car from the centre to the outer boundaries, and the principle of single affiliation, which says that one commune may be a part of only one metropolitan area. All the above principles apply to the Cracow Metropolitan Area, which is reflected inter alia in the change in land use forms and the increase of the land development density. Urban spaces which grow in the shadow of a metropolis copy and transfer patterns of functioning and living from a big city to small towns, which may – in consequence – lose their identity. Małopolskie Voivodeship, including the Cracow Metropolitan Area, 26% of which is made up by the Cracow agglomeration, is a region characterised by a complex ownership structure and varied land configuration, the latter adding to its tourist and recreational qualities. Towns of submontane character are situated in the southern part of the Cracow Metropolitan Area, in the poviats (counties) of Myślenice, Wadowice, Bochnia and Wieliczka. The most interesting submontane towns within the influence zone of the Cracow Metropolitan Area and – at the same time – the ones which best characterise the problem of spatial structure transformations resulting from tourist services are, among others, Lanckorona, Lipnica Murowana, Nowy Wiśnicz and Łapanów. Analysis of the existing conditions and spatial transformations, as well as the adopted vision of development of the above-mentioned towns, are the grounds on which we may determine the trends in the development of their spatial structure, changing to keep up with the tourist services sector. Development of tourism will contribute to preservation of the environmental assets, cultural heritage and identity, as well as to creation of new jobs. It will also give residents an opportunity to acquire an additional source of income.