What will recreation and tourism in the IJsselmeer area look like in 30 years?

Since 2019, we are involved in a project concerning the future of recreation and tourism in the IJselmeer area in 2050. The project is headed by SWECO and the project team consists of representatives from the bordering provinces (Noord-Holland, Flevoland, Overijssel en Fryslân), SWECO and ETFI.

IJsselmeer region 2050: future-proof tourism destination

To be able to foresee a future in 2050, scenarios provide a useful instrument. With scenarios possible futures can be explored of how recreation and tourism in the IJsselmeer area could look like 30 in years an extreme yet plausible situation. Subsequently, the scenarios act as a source of inspiration to paint a vision that can guide the development of recreation & tourism in the area. We are involved in the project to design and guide the scenario planning process.

4 future scenarios for recreation and tourism in the area

During the first months of 2020 four future scenarios were developed based on an expert session and several feedback rounds: Palm Island, Water Arena, Newest Wilderness and Archipelago. JAM Visual Thinking in Amsterdam has translated the conversations during the expert session into a visualisation of each scenario. The scenarios are framed by two factors of which the experts expect the biggest impact on recreation and tourism in the area in 2050 and the biggest uncertainty. The uncertainty of these factors is expressed in and limited by two plausible extremes: climate change & water safety (managed and controlled versus not managed and controlled) and experience (individualistic/hedonistic versus collectivist/environmentally conscious).

Conference to discuss and develop a future vision

A virtual conference took place on the 20^th of May. During the conference, the scenarios were used as a source of inspiration to identify the key values of the area with all public and private stakeholders and to develop a future vision for recreation and tourism in the area in 2050. After the conference the vision will be transferred into a roadmap for each subregion with which the vision can be achieved. The subregions include the metropolitan area of Amsterdam.