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Building leisure landscapes with new Mixing Panel
We spend a lot of free time in the characteristic Dutch landscape. But what exactly are leisure landscapes, how do they develop, what does the future hold and how do we get a grip on developments? These questions and many more are addressed in an inspirational note prepared by CELTH researchers. New is the Mixing Panel for Leisure Landscapes that is being introduced.
Thinking about leisure landscapes is still in its infancy. To give this an impetus, researchers from NHL Stenden/European Tourism Futures Institute (ETFI), For the Love of Place, HZ Kenniscentrum Kusttoerisme, Breda University of Applied Sciences with the support of CELTH, have drawn up the inspiration note on behalf of the province of Overijssel and Gastvrij Overijssel. 'Every landscape in Overijssel is also a leisure landscape'.
Stefan Hartman of NHL Stenden/ETFI on behalf of the researchers about the reason: “The leisure economy misses out on opportunities if it does not link up with the major spatial challenges that are in the pipeline in the Netherlands. The physical living environment is in transition: adjustments and changes are being made step by step, sometimes with major spatial consequences for the perception and meaning of places. The leisure economy is not just an integrated, integral part of these tasks. Action is needed to hook up to the leisure economy.”
Why a vision on leisure landscapes?
A vision of leisure landscapes is important to indicate the relationships between the leisure economy and the physical living environment so that they reinforce each other. With the advent of the Environmental Act and the major transition challenges, strategic thinking about landscapes and the role that leisure experiences can play in them has only become more important.
Leisure landscapes are places full of character in which to live, work and spend leisure time. The environmental quality is high. They are places that offer people a wealth of experiences, where visitors from far and wide come and return, and which at the same time meet the needs of residents and users. They are meaningful places. Places where there is also room for entrepreneurial initiative, complementary concepts, and for healthy competition, which leads to an optimal quality of experience and business vitality. In leisure landscapes, different layers come together and reinforce each other; nature, landscape, (agricultural) culture, heritage, living, working and recreation.
Leisure landscapes plotted
In the publication, as the first test case, the researchers have plotted various leisure landscapes in Overijssel in a model in which the experience quality is compared to the experience potential over time. The development of a leisure landscape is often insidious at first, then impulses are given after which a balance is reached. Disruption can occur in the last phase of development. Plotting leisure landscapes on the graph is not an exact science, it is a thinking model, a 'talking platform' if you like, to know areas and their qualities, and to visualise their differences.
For Hartman, the most important results are: “By considering every place as 'also' a leisure landscape, conscious considerations and choices are made. Residents (recreationists) and visitors (tourists) benefit from this and opportunities arise for the leisure economy. In many places, this goes very well, but in many places, it is too implicit, happens in too late phases of a project, or, even worse, not at all. We try to overcome that with this inspirational note.
Mixing Panel for strategic choices
Strategic choices will have to be made to prevent developments from 'happening to us'. The researchers have placed the options in a Mixing Panel for Leisure Landscapes. That Mixing Panel with 26 sliders is a tool to identify important buttons that matter for the development of leisure landscapes. The Mixing Panel is an instrument that can be used to make concrete at an area level what matters in turning the place into a well-functioning leisure landscape. The Mixing Panel will be different for each area.
Also relevant outside Overijssel
The inspiration memorandum 'Every landscape in Overijssel is also a leisure landscape' (in Dutch) is relevant for anyone involved in area development, including those outside Overijssel. The project is currently being followed up. Hartman about the follow-up: “With partners from the Leisure Network (VTN) of the provinces and the national government, we are now looking at developing a guideline for integrated spatial tourism policy. We go many steps further than this inspiration memorandum and offer concrete tools that policymakers can use to bridge the gap between the spatial policy domain and that of the leisure economy.”
