Evolution of Tourism in Natural Destinations and Dynamic Sustainable Thresholds over Time

Abstract

Tourism is a complex industry involving numerous types of activities that can have adverse environmental impacts and, over time, gradually change the way tourists experience tourist destinations and their choice of particular tourist destinations. The overall aim of this study is to examine the impact of tourism destination exploitation upon the perceived attractiveness of a particular destination to different types of visitors using the Purism Scale coupled to the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC). The study uses the system dynamics Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) approach, to analyse feedback loop behaviour and causal loop impacts over time. The results show that the different visitors’ types, as defined by the Purist Scale, affect the attractiveness of the tourist destination in different ways over time. The results further show that different visitors’ types cannot exist at their own optimum level at the same time in a destination. The concept tourism carrying capacity should thus be defined through the maximum site attractiveness,-based upon the optimum size of infrastructure that ensures low visual effect, low crowding effect, and low environmental impact. This enables better understanding of the different evolution phases of the tourist site during its push for infrastructure development.

Dynamic Feedback Analysis of Influencing Factors and Challenges of Dockless Bike-Sharing Sustainability in China

“…The CLD treated all the variables as unit-less, and focused on the behavior between influencing factors in regard to feedback. The major advantage of the CLD was that it enabled using "hard" and "soft" variables in the diagram without the need to take their properties into account; instead, it only factored in the direction of their causal influences [31].…”

Public Perception of Wilderness in Iceland

“…With more and more tourists visiting the Icelandic highlands the demand for tourism infrastructure gradually increases. It has been shown [11,54,56] that if this demand is met by further infrastructure development, wilderness quality will be reduced and the composition of the types of tourist who visit the highlands is likely to change and accordingly affect Icelanders' wilderness experience. Therefore, it is of vital importance that infrastructure development for tourism and other economic activities in wilderness areas is based on a carefully planned framework, such as the recreation opportunity spectrum (ROS) [57,58].…”

The Role of Public Participation for Determining Sustainability Indicators for Arctic Tourism

“…Increasingly, the tourism industry has made use of these natural resources, and in the most popular destinations, the tourism industry is gradually altering the destinations by building infrastructure to accommodate more tourists, e.g., improved access, parking spaces, walking paths, lavatories, souvenir stores, restaurants, and accommodation. Such alterations change visitors' experiences [76][77][78], stressing the critical importance of a holistic approach when planning Arctic tourism. A holistic approach is no less important for maintaining the diversity of the Arctic region [16].…”