Turystyka w strukturze funkcjonalnej dużego miasta. Przykład Łodzi

Data on the number of employees, business entities and added gross value is analyzed against basic economic sectors. The analysis confirms the dominating role of the service sector in the functional structure of Łódź (with the clear predominance of metropolitan services). Łódź has been described as a city with dominant service function, together with a contribution from industry. An attempt of the empirical determination of the place of tourism in the functional structure of Łódź has been made on the basis of the numbers of employees and business entities. This attempt indicates the marginal role of tourism in the economy of the city. The lack of an appropriate disaggregation of data concerning gross values prevented us from using such values in the assessment of the place of tourism in the functional structure of the city. The number and amount of tourists’ expenses indirectly point at a certain significance of tourists for entrepreneurs dealing with them, but simultaneously, the marginal role of tourists in the whole economy of the city is observed. The application of classical indicators of tourism function has not succeeded in case of Łódź. The calculated values of such indicators suggest that the tourism function of Łódź is at the initial stage of development. This is in agreement with the observation reported by Ashworth and Page (2011) that tourism evidently needs diverse, flexible and accessible tourism products that are provided by a big city. However, it is not obvious that big cities support or have to support themselves through tourism. Therefore, the view on the important influence of tourism on the economy of big cities still requires confirmation through empirical research.

Na podstawie danych o liczbie pracujących, podmiotów gospodarczych i wartości dodanej brutto, Łódź na początku drugiej dekady XXI wieku określono jako miasto o dominującej funkcji usługowej z udziałem przemysłu. Podjęta próba empirycznego określenia miejsca turystyki w strukturze funkcjonalnej Łodzi na podstawie wyżej wymienionych danych, jak również w oparciu o tradycyjne wskaźniki funkcji turystycznej wskazuje na marginalną rolę turystyki w jej strukturze funkcjonalnej.