What is carrying capacity? Give an example for a destination that ...

[darbym82]

Question 1

Is it more difficult to define tourism carrying capacity for a resort, historic town, or national park? Why?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is carrying capacity? Give an example for a destination that you have recently visited.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[scrocafella]

Answer 1

To make the concept of carrying capacity operational is difficult for all tourism areas whether a resort, historic town, or national park. Tourism destinations are affected differently by both the volume of visitors as well as their type of activity. Also, many tourism activities are indistinguishable from community activities causing the measurement of tourism impacts, necessary for quantifying carrying capacity, to be problematic.

Answer 2

Carrying capacity is the level of human activity and development that an area can absorb before compromising the environment and the quality of the human experience. Tourism carrying capacity is the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing the destruction of the physical, economic, and sociocultural environment, or an unacceptable decrease in the quality of visitor's satisfaction. An example could be the massive number of visitors, such as college students, traveling to Virginia Beach or Florida beach destinations for spring break. The excessive amount of tourists leading to overcrowding in hotels, bars, and beach areas is an indication of the area's carrying capacity being exceeded.

[darbym82]

Thanks

[scrocafella]

Welcome