Crowding in marine environments: Divers and whale watchers in the Azores

Assessing the Social Carrying Capacity of Diving Sites in Mabul Island, Malaysia

“…In a study conducted in the Azores Islands, north-east Atlantic, Bentz et al (2015) found that if the number of divers exceeded eight, respondents would demonstrate increasing preference for fewer divers and experience a decline in satisfaction. While there is a dearth of literature on the effect of proximity on crowding, Bell et al (2011) by studying visitors' acceptance of different levels of boat usage in Molokini Shoal Marine Life Conservation District, Hawai'i, concluded that the close proximity of boats might aggravate visitors' crowding feeling even if the same number of boats was around.…”

“…On the other hand, some divers simply chose lesscrowded destinations to start with. Bentz et al (2015) found that divers chose Azores Islands mainly because they did not want to experience crowding.…”

Assessing perceived crowding of diving sites in Hong Kong

“…Our findings are also consistent with some previous studies on marine environments (Shafer et al, 1998;Inglis et al, 1999) which also concluded that visitor perceptions of crowding were significantly influenced by the number of people in the images. Bentz et al (2015) conducted their study in the Azores Islands, north-east Atlantic and found that when the number of divers exceeded eight, respondents demonstrated increasing preference for fewer divers and satisfaction declined. This is consistent with this study which also finds that if 7~8 divers at 3 m are in sight at an HKDS, it will be judged by the majority of diving tourists as unacceptable.…”

“…It was showed that divers might be willing to pay up to US $4.51 to avoid one diver. Bentz et al (2015) found that divers choose Azores Islands mainly because they do not want to experience crowding.…”

Sustaining marine wildlife tourism through linking Limits of Acceptable Change and zoning in the Wildlife Tourism Model

“…[11,[25][26][27][28][29]. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and IUCN recommend it as a control mechanism for tourism in natural and protected areas in part due to its potential to achieve a sustainable balance between environmental and social needs [30][31][32].…”