Summary:

Risk is an inseparable part of all economic processes and occurs in connection with the current functioning of the commune and its development, regardless of the direction and the dominant factor of local development. The subject of the book is the risk in the development of the tourist commune, i.e. the risk that potentially affects the possibility of achieving the objectives undertaken by the commune in connection with the development of tourism, creating a territorial tourist brand and using tourism as a factor of local development. Taking up the tourist development direction by the commune authorities is associated with the possibility of specific risk categories that would otherwise not exist. The materialization of this risk has an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of the planned activities. The aim of the conducted research was to identify the risk category associated with implementation of tasks in the field of tourism by the commune, and in particular with the creation and functioning of the communal branded tourist product, when activities in this direction are undertaken to use tourism as a factor of local development. The main objective also included the construction of such risk's models together with the development of indications of how to adapt them and use in local government practice, by developing an individualized risk profile of the
tourist commune. Commune's risk associated with the development of tourism and the creation and functioning of a communal branded tourist product may be specific to the development of tourism in the commune and is associated in particular with the occurrence and service of tourist traffic in its area and the creation of appropriate conditions. This risk may also have a more general character, although resulting from the implementation of goals and activities in the sphere of tourism, but also common to other non-tourist areas of the commune's activity. The risk in the second indicated aspect also occurs when tourism is not a stimulus for the development of the commune, and is related to the general technical, organizational and financial aspects of the commune's functioning and the implementation of tasks. In the analysis conducted, only the risks belonging to the first of the described types are of interest, i.e. having a specific character for the implementation of the objectives and actions undertaken by the commune as a local government unit, with a view to the development of tourism in its area. The spatial scope of the research includes selected tourist communes in Poland, however, for the purposes of the analysis, a commune was recognized as a tourism commune, which explicitly focuses on tourism development, i.e. it implemented issues related to tourism development in its strategic documents. The source materials used in the analysis include
communal strategic documents (i.e. tourism product development strategies, tourism development strategies, municipal development strategies) and data obtained through direct research. Field studies were carried out by the author in 2015-2017 in selected tourist communes. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument. The essence of the commune is its independence. The commune's freedom in the sphere of functioning and development is connected with the issue of risk. Potential risk areas and its factors can be identified both in the commune's surroundings (political, economic, social environment, etc.) as well as in itself, i.e. in the decision-making method, the adopted organizational structure (expressed, inter alia, in the form of organizational units), scope and method of implementation of tasks. Including tourism in
the commune's development strategy creates a special risk area. Due to the specificity of this risk, resulting, inter alia, from the nature of tourism as an economic activity, as a human activity in free time, and above all as a factor of local development, stimulating tourism development is an important area of the commune's activity, which should be subject to further activities related to risk management. The risk, referred to in this book as the risk of a tourist commune, may be of a different nature. It can be described in a certain hierarchical system, which refers to the process of accepting tourism as a factor of local development. In the first place, a decision is made to include tourism in the commune's development strategy. Then (according to the criterion adopted in the book), the given commune becomes (or not) a tourist commune. When the municipal authorities make a positive decision on this issue, then, mainly depending on the predisposition of the commune area (including existing tourist values), the preferred form of tourism is chosen. Each of the forms of tourism requires appropriate action to stimulate its development. At this stage, decisions are focused on the type of intervention under the local tourism policy. Specific activities are planned,
and their scope, character and manner of implementation are conditioned mainly by the current level of tourism development, desired intensity of tourism, or the nature and status of existing infrastructure development. The risk in the development of the tourist commune appears already at the stage of resolving the decision on taking a tourist development direction. It can even be considered that the risk in this respect has the most serious consequences. The commune authorities, deciding about undertaking investments and actions to stimulate the development of tourism, assume that tourism will be a factor of local development, and the commune, its inhabitants and functioning entities will consequently receive specific benefits. The greatest risk in this regard is failure to meet expectations, when expenses and measures directed to the development of tourism will not lead to stimulation of tourist traffic, and consequently tourism will not play the assumed role in stimulating the development of the commune. The next stages of the tourist policy implementation in the commune cause the occurrence of risk, which focuses on such risk areas as adapting space for the needs of tourist activity, creating favorable economic conditions and social climate, or the negative impact of excessive intensification of tourist traffic. The identification of risk areas was carried out on the basis of an analysis of the records of communal strategic documents in the part related to the implementation of the tourism policy. The results of the conducted analysis were developed in a hierarchical system in such a way that the identified risk areas were subordinated to the strategic and operational objectives set. For the purposes of the analysis, four strategic goals were formulated for the four main strategic tourist products of Poland, i.e. for (1) urban and cultural tourism, (2) business tourism, (3) recreational tourism, active and specialist tourism, and (4) tourism in rural areas. The fifth strategic goal was additionally distinguished referring to various activities undertaken in order to shape general conditions conducive to the development of tourism in the commune and related to the process of creating a communal tourist brand. Activities under the fifth strategic objective have a repetitive nature within each of the four strategic brands. The identified risk areas were subject to further analysis, which used the results of direct research carried out in selected tourist communes. In this way, within each of the risk areas, risk factors and their corresponding potential threats were identified to ultimately identify the risk categories of the tourist commune. In total, 23 risk categories of the tourist commune were identified and defined. Defined risk categories allow for comprehensive description of the risk occurring in connection with the commune's adoption of a tourist development direction. Following the adopted research procedure, all separate risk categories were grouped by constructing five separate theoretical risk models of the tourist commune. Four of them concern the above mentioned four strategic tourist products of Poland, corresponding to the specific nature of tourist demand and forms of tourism falling within their concept. The fifth model, on the other hand, has a universal character, connected with the process of creating the concept of a branded tourist product and activities necessary to stimulate the development of the tourist function of the commune.
The developed risk models of the tourist commune present a general risk picture, which is related to the use of tourism in the local development process. The construction of individual models refers to operational goals designated separately under each of the strategic objectives adopted in the analysis and abstracts from the realities of a specific tourist commune. The commune authorities, if they wish to use the developed models, should adapt them to the needs and possibilities appropriate to the existing conditions of a given commune, its tourist potential and the designated development priorities. An expression of the adapted risk models of the tourist commune is the risk profile of the tourist commune, which can be developed in an individualized way, i.e. referring to the realities of a specific tourist commune and the communal branded tourist product it creates. An individualized risk profile is a reflection of the risk categories appropriate for a given tourist commune, taking into account the frequency of their occurrence in the identified risk areas. The development of the profile favors the reality of the planned local tourism policy, simplifies the risk category review of the tourist commune and is useful in the risk management process, to which the local authorities are legally obliged. In the course of the conducted analysis, it was confirmed that the inclusion of tourism in the commune's development strategy has consequences in the form of specific risk categories. Although the identified risk categories relate to various areas of the commune's activity, such as commune's finances, investments or protection of the natural environment, they are directly related to the development of tourism and result from taking action in the sphere of tourism and the occurrence of tourism in the commune's area.
Identified risk categories do not occur in the same way in each tourist commune. Their occurrence depends in particular on the forms of tourism developed in the commune and on the commune's involvement
in the implementation of the local tourism policy. The dependence of the occurrence of risk categories on the form of tourism found expression in the distinctiveness of constructed models referring to particular strategic
branded tourist products of Poland, representing different groups of forms of tourism. In this way, different types of risk categories correspond to different forms of tourism. The actual situation of a given tourist commune increases the existing diversity, because in the case of developing only selected forms of tourism (not all) within a given strategic branded tourist product, the final picture (structure) of the risk categories will be even more diversified. Taking into account the scope of commune's involvement in the implementation
of the local tourism policy, in addition to the forms of tourism developed in the commune, additionally deepens the diversity of risk categories. The validity of this statement is confirmed by the elaborated
risk profile of the tourist commune, which refers to a specific communal branded tourist product. Within the risk profile, in addition to the indication of the risk categories themselves, there is also information about how often (number of occurrences) individual risk categories occur in the identified risk areas associated with the implementation of a specific communal branded tourist product. Another scope of the implementation of the local tourism policy, resulting for example from the already existing level of infrastructure development or vision of the target level of tourism development, will mean a different result of identification of risk areas, and therefore a different layout and number of occurrences of associated identified risk categories.