Best Practices for Determining Tourism Carrying Capacity in Marine and Coastal Ecosystems

Abstract

Finding the tourism carrying capacity of a given area can inform sustainable levels of tourism and management objectives. The goal of this review is to develop a framework for studying tourism carrying capacity in coastal and marine ecosystems that follows the best practices of previous studies. This systematic literature review takes the varied definitions of tourism carrying capacity into specific consideration, suggesting how studies with different concepts of tourism carrying capacity might be integrated. For the purposes of this review, tourism carrying capacity will be defined as the maximum number of individuals that can visit a given area simultaneously without causing unacceptable deterioration of the biophysical and sociocultural environment or the quality of tourist satisfaction. Within this definition, there are four main subcategories of tourism carrying capacity: 1) biophysical carrying capacity, 2) sociocultural carrying capacity, 3) managerial carrying capacity, and 4) experiential carrying capacity. This review examines the varied methodologies used to determine these carrying capacities, the studies reviewed differ in procedures, overall focus, and variables included. Although few studies considered multiple sectors of tourism carrying capacity, this review also examines how subcategories influence one another and will explore options for more holistic assessments of tourism carrying capacity, culminating in recommendations for assessing tourism carrying capacity in the Nusa Penida MPA in Indonesia based on the best practices of previous studies.