Recreation carrying capacity estimations to support beach management at Praia de Faro, Portugal

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe purpose of this research paper is to outline the theory and practice of tourism carrying capacity assessment and its relevance as a management tool for coastal management. Based on the Tourism Carrying Capacity Assessment for Protected Areas Framework and the Image Capture Technique associated with the PAOT (people at one time) approach, this paper explores Praia de Faro as the study area and attempts to assess the optimum number of people that should be allowed without jeopardizing the surrounding ecological, social and cultural environments. Results showed that the physico-ecological carrying capacity should be between 1385 and 2628 visitors/day with maximum impact acceptability curves being 305 and 608 tourists (for local people and tourists respectively). Although there was a significant difference between the physico-ecological and socio-cultural carrying capacity, this study suggests that the physico-ecological carrying may be applied for ecosystem management, whilst the socio-cultural carrying capacity may be addressed when management objectives are tourists and beach users.

Investment Evaluation of Tourism Industry: A Case Study of Coastal Recreation Areas in Hualien Taiwan

“…In addition, a lack of professional tour guides and planning personnel leads to the failure to implement the actual ecotourism (Loannides et al, 2006), and the intervention of financial groups interferes with the consensus of local residents and affects the direction of the development of ecotourism (May, 1991;Ceballos-Lascurain, 1996;Zacarias et al, 2011;Vinals et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2015;Wu and Chen, 2016). In terms of the impacts on policy, the lack of a concept of "tourist carrying capacity" may easily cause the consumption of and damage to tourist attractions (May, 1991;Tourism Bureau, 2002;Zhang et al, 2015;Guerra & Dawson, 2016) while the lack of any monitoring mechanism of Ecotourism attractions leads to the failure to accurately evaluate the overall influence of the ecotourism development on tourist attractions (May, 1991;Tourism Bureau, 2002;Vinals et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2015;Wu & Chen, 2016).…”

“…With the improvement of human beings" standards of living, the need for coastal recreational areas has been increasing (Saveriades, 2000;Zacarias et al, 2011;Vinals et al, 2014;Bera et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2015). However, although the over-development of a tourist attraction can attract a huge number of tourists to boost local economic prosperity, it can also consume tourism resources and reduce recreational quality.…”

Vindicating Sustainable Leisure in Kuningan, West Java, Indonesia

“…In detail, local consensus is a local community in participating in the sustainable leisure management (Hiwasaki, 2003). Secondly, the appraisal ensuring the favorable balance effects of leisure between environmental, sociocultural, and economic (Mikhaylovna, Yevgenyevna, & Leonidovna, 2014), and Finally, the social carrying capacity as an assessment of the optimum number of people that be allowed without damaging the environment with social, cultural, and ecological approaches (Zacarias, Williams, & Newton, 2011).…”

Can Forest Management in Protected Areas Produce New Risk Situations? A Mixed-Motive Perspective from the Dadia-Soufli-Lefkimi Forest National Park, Greece

“…A number of studies attempted to incorporate stochastic and fuzzy decision rules in the estimation of carrying capacity to account for variability and uncertainty in observed indicators (Prato, 2001(Prato, , 2009. Further, there can be substantial divergence between the natural carrying capacity and the social carrying capacity estimated for the same destination (Zacarias et al, 2011). Moreover, positive indicators (e.g., user satisfaction) might remain over minimum acceptable levels, while negative indicators (e.g., soil erosion from trails) are surpassing maximum acceptable rates.…”