Leiðbeinandi Laumu er Dr. Marc L. Miller, prófessor við University of Washinton, Seattle og prófdómari er Dr. Gavin Lucas, dósent við Háskóla Íslands.

 

Lauma, sem er stödd á Ísafirði, mun flytja fyrirlesturinn í stofu 3 í Háskólasetrinu. Allir velkomnir.

 

Nánar um efni kynningarinnar:

 

Underutilized Military Heritage Sites at the West Coast of Latvia: Feasibility Study for Creating a New Tourism Attraction

 

LAUMA GULBE

 

Abstract

During the Soviet period numerous buildings and infrastructure elements were built on the west coast of Latvia solely for border protection and military purposes. Today the original purpose of their existence has outdated, many sites have been completely abandoned, others are currently underutilized. This master's thesis focuses on two military heritage sites there - former Frontier Surveillance Facility in Mazirbe, and former Zenith Missile Brigade at Cirpstene. Local conditions have been studied for both of these sites in order to understand how they can be used as tourism attractions with relatively small investments, or how they can serve as a starting point for planning bigger investments for more significant projects in tourism industry.
Literature review as a part of this thesis focuses on topics such as war; peace; philosophy of tourism; sustainable development; and military heritage tourism. A short introduction to the tourism industry in Latvia is also given, regarding its contribution to the national economy; coastal zone policy issues; and military heritage tourism initiatives.
In order to carry out feasibility studies for the two military heritage sites, three subsequent research methods have been used: Review of applicable legislation and local level land use plans; qualitative interviewing of the key stakeholders; and stakeholder analysis.
During this study, it was found out that there exist legal, social and economic obstacles for realizing the full potential of the two military heritage sites. But there are also opportunities that have not been fully embraced so far.
The study concludes that both sites hold a potential for creating a tourism attraction - only the feasible approaches differ. Thesis outcomes include deeper analysis of findings and well as utilization suggestions for each of the military heritage sites.