Kaatsheuvel and the boundaries of the resort town concept

Student report (2024)

Authors

A.L.J. Martens Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

V. Baptist History, Form & Aesthetics - Architecture and the Built Environment (mentor)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment, Architecture and the Built Environment
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

18-04-2024

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

Most academic papers never give a concrete definition of what a resort town is, which makes discussion of the topic difficult. To create more clarity on the subject this paper investigates the Dutch town of Kaatsheuvel, and if the theme park within its borders, the Efteling, makes the town an example of a resort town. To achieve this the history and development of the town were traced back to the inception of the Efteling in 1933, and this development was then compared to academic sources on resort towns, with the six stages of resort town development by Butler (1980) playing a key role. In the end, Kaatsheuvel has a lot of similarities to other resort towns, but especially the early stages of the resort town are not present in the history of Kaatsheuvel. This means that Kaatsheuvel can be considered as a resort town, but the path it took to get to that status differs from other more conventional cases. This conclusion has both specified and expanded the concept of the resort town, making future discussions on the topic more precise.

Files

Kaatsheuvel_and_the_boundaries... (pdf)
(pdf | 3.02 Mb)
Unknown license