4. Sand Dunes
4.3 The Curonian Spit – Lithuania
The SWOT analysis below is a consolidation of the individual SWOT analysis of the five sand dunes: The Protective Dune Crest, The Drifting Dunes (Sklandytojų Dune), Vecekrūgas (The Old Inn) Dune, The Grey Dunes and Horns (Bulvikio horn).
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Strengths Weaknesses
Historical value (Protective Dune Crest, Vecekrūgas, Horns)
High Esthetical Value (Drifting Dunes, Grey Dunes)
Good Infrastructure: Close to bike paths (Grey Dunes, Vecekrūgas), Conveniently accessible by supported means of transportation (Vecekrūgas, Horns)
Habitat of Natura 2000 (The Grey Dunes)
Expensive maintenance (The Protective Dune Crest , The Grey Dunes)
Absence of stable funding policy (The Protective Dune Crest)
Visitor-sensitive environment (Protective Dunes, Drifting Dunes, Grey Dunes)
Lack of information (Vecekrūgas, Horns )
No recreational infrastructure (Vecekrūgas)
Opportunities Threats
Financing from Structural Funds (Protective Dune Crest)
Applying volunteer labour (Protective Dune Crest)
The emergence of recreational infrastructure – paragliding, thematic tours, cultural heritage tourism, educational camps (Protective Dune Crest)
Exploiting the legend and planting method for tourism as marketing tools (all dunes)
Natura 2000 (The Grey Dunes)
Development of transportation infrastructure (all dunes)
Global warming (threat of the water-level rise) (Protective Dune Crest)
Termination of financing - political nuances (Protective Dune Crest)
New methods of strengthening the dune may displace the heritage (Protective Dune Crest)
Danger of extinction (All dunes)
Closing for visitors due to the over carrying capacity (The Grey Dunes)
Conclusions
One of the most important activities for Neringa Municipality is to obtain a stable flow of funding.
If this cannot be achieved with the state, Neringa Municipality should turn to the private sector to find sponsors. If funding becomes more stable the municipality will have the possibility to improve some essential features in connection to the dune, e.g. car and bike parking facilities. Without necessities like these, it is clear that tourists have less incentive to visit the sand dunes.
One of the most important activities for Neringa Municipality is to obtain a stable flow of funding.
If this cannot be achieved with the state, Neringa Municipality should turn to the private sector to find sponsors. If funding becomes more stable the municipality will have the possibility to improve some essential features in connection to the dune, e.g. car and bike parking facilities. Without necessities like these, it is clear that tourists have less incentive to visit the sand dunes.
The information from the SWOT analysis is used to produce recommendations for the Neringa Municipality on the sand dunes as an overall attraction and therefore each sand dune is not analyzed independently. Hence, the findings of the SWOT analysis are used as guidance to identify possible
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points of improvement that can be applied to increase the attractiveness of the sand dunes of the municipality on a larger level.
Key influences on the visitor experience at the Curonian Spit – Lithuania
Entering the park costs between 3 and 15 Euro from 1st of September to May 31st and between 6 and 21 Euro from June 1st to August 31st, depending on the type of vehicle. It is free of charge for the remaining months. Parking is available at various spots in the park for between 3 and 15 € per day or 0, 5 – 1, 5 € per hour. However, as identified in the SWOT analysis, parking is not available at every sand dune, which can be problematic for the visitors as the distance between the points of interest in the park can be relatively large.
There are approx. 20 accommodation facilities available in the region ranging from guesthouses to hotels and with a price range from under 17 to 115 € per person/night.
Additional to sand dunes several other tourist attractions and activities are also available to the visitors:
There are over 13 museums, galleries, and exhibition houses in the municipality covering a wide aspect of themes including art, history, sea, and famous local people.
There are several cultural attractions in the area, such as old cemeteries, a light house, old fishermen houses and sculptures.
Several trails including an educational ecological walking path, biking trails, snowboard trails and orienteering tracks.
Several other physical activities such as fishing, sailing and boat trips and bird observation.
Visitor Characteristics of the Curonian Spit – Lithuania
501 questionnaires were collected from the Lithuanian side of the Curonian Spit in 2012. In 2011, no questionnaires were collected, which means that it is not possible to track changes and development between the two years. However, 501 questionnaires should make the results from 2012 somewhat reliable.
68 pct. of visitors at the Lithuanian side of the Curonian Spit visited for the first time, and the average visiting numbers of guest that visited more than once was only 1, 4. This could indicate that the interest in returning to the attraction is not that great from visitors.
45 pct. of visitors come to the attraction by car, while 26 pct. actually get their by biking. Especially the latter is interesting, as it indicates that there is a large segment that is interesting in sport activities. This is will be examined in the recommendations.
In terms of awareness, 32 pct. of visitors have heard about the place from the landlord, 23 pct. from the tourist information, 15 pct. from flyers, and 10 pct. from recommendations. This is interesting, as it could mean that many locals take part in promoting the Curonian Spit. Furthermore, many of
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these types of awareness sources are cheaper than promoting the site in the radio, newspaper, TV etc.
Generally, the Lithuanian side of the Curonian Spit is doing great on the overall satisfaction rates such as admission price (4,6) and price performance ratio (4,8), information about the attraction (4,6), Content of the attraction (4,6) and overall impression (4,7) and general satisfaction (4,5).
However, it should be considered to look into sanitary (2, 9) and catering (2, 8) facilities. Also, transport options (3, 7), service / assistance (3, 8), and shopping facilities (3, 7) could be improved at the attraction.
25 pct. spend less than half an hour, 31 pct. spend between 30 min and 1 hour, and 43 pct. spend between 1 and 2 hours. This means that only 1 pct. of visitors spend more than 2 hours at the Curonian Spit, which means that there is a definite need for more activities that could have people stay longer. One of these could be geocaching, which is reviewed in the recommendations part.
Most visitors are visiting the Curonian Spit to relax (27 pct.), because they are on a city trip (22 pct.), cultural holidays (21 pct.) and activity holidays (13 pct.). In terms of accommodation, 26 pct.
of visitors are staying at hotels, while the rest is somewhat equally spread on different accommodation types.
98 pct. of visitors are accompanied by others, with more than 2 adults and 1 child on average. 60 pct. are females, 40 pct. males. 62 pct. comes from Lithuania, which means that the attraction actually has quite high number of foreigners visiting (38 pct.), with Germans taking up 22 pct. of the total visitors. Russians and Latvians take up 3 pct. each, while the rest is spread on other European countries and the US.
Strategic Recommendations for the Curonian Spit – Lithuania
Following the overall structure of the paper, next part will look into strategic recommendations based on the above analysis.
Recommendations on how to increase the number of visitors
Recommendations for product for development: according to the outcome of the SWOT analysis and the questionnaire survey, the supporting facilities of the Curonian Spit, such as parking facilities, are inadequate. The supporting facilities are a requirement for an attraction wishing to become a favourable tourist destination as the visitors find them necessary to find the stay pleasant.
This is not only limited to parking facilities but can also include sanitary facilities, kiosks, cafés, shopping facilities, benches etc. Development of these could also help improve the low amount of time that visitors spend at Lithuanian side of the Curonian Spit.
Furthermore, the actual attractions and activities in the other can be further developed to enhance tourist demands. In order to create valuable tourist experiences, it is necessary to find out the
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specific demands of potential visitors and create tourist experiences in relation to this. One possibility is to look at what other sand dunes have done to develop products that attract visitors, such as Slowinski National Park’s use of events to create off-season demand.
In terms of transnational products, it is recommended to implement routes for both biking and cars.
These could go along the sand dunes, crossing the countries of Poland, Kaliningrad and Lithuania.
Therefore, management responsible for the attractions in each of the three countries should join forces and improve the overall experience at all three attractions. The routes are meant to be self-guided, which means that management only has to set up the basic framework in terms of finding useful roads, nice restaurants and accommodation possibilities etc., and then plot it into a map. This map could even be interactive, so that visitors could add elements along the routes themselves.
Geocaching is also an option that could help prolong the stay of visitors, which is currently very low.
Recommendations for marketing development: As with the majority of the sand dune attractions there is a lack of information in English, which is essential in order to establish demand for international tourists. This implies that demand could potentially be increased by having extensive information about the dune and surrounding areas available on the webpage of the municipality.
Furthermore, engaging in promotional activities in the surrounding area and abroad could help to increase the knowledge about the sand dunes. One way of doing this could be to place promotional material, such as leaflets and maps, close to where the tourists of the area resides, e.g. in hostels, hotels, summer houses etc. Additionally, special events hosted in the sand dunes can be marketed to the local inhabitants in order to create awareness and interest in the events.
Recommendations for development of Baltic Sea Region heritage
For the development of a Baltic Sea Region heritage the Neringa Municipality can engage in collaboration with other natural heritages in the Baltic Sea Region to promote the different environmental attractions that can be seen in the region. This way the tourists can be educated and encouraged to visit the Baltic Sea Region and the many exciting environmental attractions available for the tourists to see. Sharing the Curonian Spit with Kaliningrad, transnational cooperation between the countries seems obvious and natural.
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