The impact of seaport development on the social environment : a case study of a port city with low unemployment and dominating tourism function

The issue of the impact of seaports on their direct vicinity has been repeatedly addressed in the academic literature. The developed merits of their impact is mainly related to employment in the port/port cluster, the seaport’s share of the municipality’s labour market, and the added value produced by the port/port cluster or the volume and structure of uncompensated flows into the municipality’s budget on account of the port’s operations. This article is aimed at providing an answer to the question of how to evaluate the impact of a new investment project in a seaport on its direct vicinity in a situation of low unemployment in the port’s municipality and the dominating tourism function in its economy. The research methodology was based on a single case study of the city of Świnoujście and the seaport in Świnoujście; the dominating economic function of this municipality is tourism. Moreover, it is the location of one of the four seaports with primary significance for the national economy. The development plans for the Szczecin & Świnoujście Seaports Authority include the construction of a deepwater container hub terminal. The investment will have an impact on the local social environment. The results of the conducted research studies are presented in the article both in a traditional approach enumerating the benefits of such an investment project for the local environment, as well as proposing a new approach to the evaluation of its benefits (inter alia, providing employment opportunities for people who so far have been forced to look for jobs outside the municipality and the long-term unemployed, preventing young and educated people from moving out of the municipality, attracting new inhabitants, improving the employment-to-population ratio, and stopping the city’s population ageing).