Tendencies of Recreational Landscape Formation in Southeastern Baltic Seaside Resorts after 1990. Case of the Palanga Resort

Abstract The goal is to analyze the tendencies of the formation of recreational landscape of the Palanga resort and, after reviewing the planning experiences of other south-eastern Baltic resorts, present measures for landscape optimization. To achieve this, an analysis of changes of the seaside recreational landscape after 1990, the current state of resorts, scientific literature, and seaside resort planning was conducted. After assessing the changes in the recreational landscape, it has been noticed that for a quarter of the last century, planning of seaside resorts was aimed at attracting and accommodating an increasing number of holidaymakers, which caused an ever increasing need to intensify the construction in the territories, increasing the scale of buildings, and urbanizing natural territories without taking into consideration the existing natural and cultural environment. Natural, anthropogenic and social factors are affecting the recreational landscape of seaside resorts, which are important in the context of resort development and regional development. The article presents the means of Palanga resort optimization based on these factors.