Fick algblomningen i Östersjön 2005 några ekonomiska effekter?
Fallet turistnäringen på Gotland
Algal bloom is a naturally occurring phenomenon and occurs in all waters around the world but in recent years, algal bloom in the Baltic Sea has become more massive and more widely spread. When an algal bloom negative effects on the seawater quality, it may have an impact on tourism in the Baltic Sea. The aim of this thesis is to study, through a survey based on a production function approach, whether an environmental change as algal blooms, influenced the Gotland tourist accommodation industry and their "production of attractive overnight? in the summer of 2005. The results show that algal blooms did not have a great impact on companies ?production of attractive accommodations". This may be due to the fact that the response rate of the survey was low and the result is thus difficult to analyse and is there for not ensured. It is interesting to consider that 57 % of all respondents of the tourism industry were adversely affected by algal blooms. That is almost twice as many, as the ones who considered themselves being affected. A total of 35 % of all respondents in the investigation, felt that they were affected by algal blooms and it was actually the western group that felt most influenced by other means of algal blooms by 17% to13% for the eastern group. Almost everyone who participated in the survey claimed that the media has magnified the problem of algae blooms and the image of Gotland is adversely affected by it.