The spirit of place of West Estonian resorts

Abstract

The authors analyse the formation and transformation processes of three Estonian coastal resorts, Haapsalu, Kuressaare and Pärnu. Starting with sea-mud therapies, these towns expanded their health resort activities from the first half of the 19th century and gradually established tourism economies. The preconditions for the birth of a resort and attempt to characterise the spirit of place of a tourism destination are discussed theoretically. The spirit of a place becomes critical during periods of change, when it is necessary to have a clear vision for local policy-making and consolidation of joint activities. It is not enough to have a beach and modern spa or hotel facilities. The resorts need some special attractions, which may be related to historic legacies or careful urban and landscape planning. Coastal tourism has faced major transformations during recent decades and all West Estonian resorts have expanded their capacity for the third time in their history. The method of study is historical and content analysis of written media, archive sources and statistics. The authors find that resorts that have a clearly expressed spirit of place are more successful than those where it is less well experienced.