Satisfaction and responsibility the attitude of holiday cottage owners towards the environment

Abstract

The influence of human activities and the resulting social conflicts are widely studied in social science. In the recent study, the authors examine this issue from the aspect of holiday cottage owners on the Southern catchment area of Lake Balaton1. The questionnaire used in the research assessed the attitude and partaking of holiday cottage owners towards the environment and their experiences in various related conflicts within the society on the Southern catchment area of Lake Balaton. It was found that the respondents have various forms of behaviour regarding the protection of environment; they think about their local or global environmental problems differently and blame different stakeholders, including themselves, and clear patterns of this can be detected at the settlement level, too. All the above mentioned issues go beyond and call attention to the potential conflict situation between settlements living from tourism at the southern watershed of Lake Balaton in aspects of both the future development priorities and – as an effect of the afore mentioned – the status of the local natural and built environment.