European Alpine Resorts

 

The above scenes are from the Bavarian Alps. Study the map below. Green represents high mountains covered with forests; white, snow covered areas; off-white, low-lying cultivated areas; and blue bodies of water, glacial lakes in U-shaped valleys. Where are the red, yellow, and white dots? What do they represent?

 

 

 

 

Source: Diercke Weltatlas. Braunschwieg: Westermann, 1988, p.78.

Answers:

  • red dots = spas, located at hot, mineral springs;

  • yellow dots = summer resort towns both in the mountains and along the coasts;

  • white = winter resort towns in the mountains where sufficient snow falls for down-hill and, more recently, cross-country skiing.
    Look at a map of ski slopes in Obersdorf, in the German Alps.

What happens when the snow melts faster than normal? See the National Geographic December 2007 issue.
Take a side trip to Italy: 1) many adult children live with their parents. 2) northern regions are richer than southern ones.

Resorts of all types are very popular in Western Europe because they are part of many workers' health insurance. In Germany, for example, workers get state-subsidized cures at health resorts -- spas, beaches, moor and mountain resorts -- for up to three week every four years!

What are the top tourism destinations in the world? How do European countries rank? Answer.


 

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 1 February 1997; last revised on 28 February 2008.