A Tourism Carrying Capacity Indicator for Protected Areas

Abstract

The aim of this article is to develop a tourism (Carrying Capacity Indicator) for protected areas that could assist regional planners and park managers to promote an equitable form of the spatial distribution of visitors' environmental pressure. To measure the negative impact of visitors on an environmentally sensitive area, various indicators have been proposed, with regard to ecologically sustainable tourism. In this paper, we examine the unequal distribution of visitors to a protected area that causes significant additional environmental pressure on some subareas. This additional pressure, which may exceed the landscape's carrying capacity, cannot be measured by the commonly used indices that represent an average for the whole area. Our objective is to depict the variability of pressure intensity within a protected area. For this purpose we introduce an indicator adjusted to the Gini coefficient resultingfrom the Lorenz curve, used by economists to measure the unequal distribution of income. The proposed indicator is applied to the Mount Olympus National Park, Greece.

Actual Use Levels and Perceived Crowding in the Peak Season at Tourist Sites in Xi'an

“…The carrying capacity approaches have been introduced as the commonly 4 used technique for controlling crowding to avoid natural and social impacts in sensitive environments (Eagles et al, 2002). The limits to acceptable change approaches define parameters, such as visitor experience or satisfaction, or moreover, for determining environmental impacts (Kostopoulou & Kyritsis, 2006). The limits to acceptable change approaches point out that the impacts of visitor numbers are inevitable.…”

“…The Terracotta Army site has attempted to disperse crowds in busy periods (Kostopoulou & Kyritsis, 2006). In the Golden Week, the entry to the best known exhibition room was permitted only once for each visitor.…”

Visitor Perceptions on the Impacts of Tourism Activities, Development and Infrastructure on the Environment of Perhentian Islands

“…The effect of tourism activities toward the environment has frequently been the essence of discussion in environmental summits. Environmental impacts from tourism activities was first highlighted in the Brundtland Commission 1987 where it was mentioned that any development although sufficient to the need of the present should not endanger the need of the future [16]. The next summit which brought forward the issue mitigating environmental impacts was the Rio Summit 1992 which introduced the concept of Local Agenda 21 [23].…”

“…The tourism industry has proven to be not only beneficiary toward the economic and social well-being but also contributes toward negative impacts towards a country [2,[7][8][9][10]. Tourism activities have been identified to have a major negative impact towards the environment [9,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

An Economic Valuation Analysis of Buccoo Reef Marine Park, Tobago, West Indies

“…Carrying capacity in tourism is a term used often to measure the level of tourism or tourism development an area can accommodate without adverse effects on the resident community, the natural environment, or the quality of visitor experience (Burke et al, 2001). The basic concept of carrying capacity, the need for a limit of threshold in the tourist activity should be present in one way or other in the concerns and priorities of local policy makers for sustainable tourism development (Kostopoulou and Kyritsis, 2006). However, to the extent that tourism related pressures on the natural environment create problems on the functioning of protected areas, management agencies need to determine what the various thresholds should be (Kostopoulou and Kyritsis, 2006).…”