Establishing the social tourism carrying capacity for the tourist resorts of the east coast of the Republic of Cyprus

It is inevitable that the development of tourism induces changes on the social character of a destination. However, the direction (i.e., whether positive or negative) and the magnitude of these changes depends on the carrying capacity of a destination in relation to the volume of tourist activity. Each destination can sustain a specific level of acceptance of tourist development and use, beyond which further development can result in socio-cultural deterioration or a decline in the quality of the experience gained by visitors. In other words, the carrying capacity of a destination is determined (i) by its ability to absorb tourist development before negative impacts are felt by the host community; and (ii) by the level of tourist development beyond which tourist flows will decline because the destination area ceases to satisfy and attract them. This paper attempts, firstly, to shed light on the concept of carrying capacity and its importance as a management tool in tourism planning and development, and secondly, to assess the carrying capacity of a region in terms of sociological capacity thresholds. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.