Account for the development of Tertiary activity’s in one non-Irish region of your choice.

In this answer the development of tourism and transport in the Paris Basin will be discussed.

Tourism in the Paris Basin

Tourism in the Paris Basin is focused on Paris. Over 9 million tourists visit the city each year. The wide variety of attractions and excellent transport infrastructure make Paris an easy destination for those tourists who want a city break. They are well supported by an excellent city transport system to Metro and a network of tourist information offices across the region. Tourism has developed in the Paris Basin because it has a wide variety of tourist attractions that appeal to a range of tourist types from young to old. Younger tourists are attracted to facility’s such as Disneyland Paris located to the east of the city at Marne-La-Vallée. More mature visitors spend time in art gallery’s and museum’s such as the Lourve and Musée D’orsay as well as visiting famous cabaret shows at the Moulin Rouge. Shopping is a major reason for tourists to visit Paris. The Champs- Elysée and Boulevard Haussmann are world famous shopping streets. Else where in the Paris Basin region, medieval towns such as Cane attract people interested in History. The Normandy beaches on the West coast of the Paris Basin region are visited by thousands of tourists who wish to remember lost relatives from World War II or trace the development of the war in France.

Transport and communication in the Paris basin

The Paris basin has an excellent transport and communications infrastructure. Today 22 million live in the Paris basin and a transport and communications network has been developed across the landscape to support their economy. It was not difficult to develop the road and rail transport network because the region is part of the North European Plain, an area of low lying flat land. Transporting of agriculture products such as wheat to urban processing plant is easy as the road and rail systems radiate out from Paris the centre of the transport network in France.

The high speed rail network TGV is focused on Paris and links the city’s to Marseilles (second largest city) in the south to Lille in the North and to the U.K via the Channel Tunnel.

The Paris Basin has several large rivers (Seine Loire) flowing roughly West wards. Theses have encouraged the development of port towns and canals across the region. Canals link the rivers to each other and carry tourist and industrial traffic.

Paris is an internationally important trading centre and has an inland port. Although it is 130km from the sea.it provides access to the English Channel at Le Havere international airports are located through out the country e.g. Charles de Gaulle Beauvais.