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Abstract
The concept of sustainable tourism development originally came into tourism vocabulary in the late 1980s when countries, especially in Europe, began to recognize the adverse impacts of unorganized and unplanned tourism on the physical and socio-cultural environments of tourist destinations. Like its parent concept, opinions on sustainable tourism development are polarized between ecological sustainable tourism development (the view held by resource protectionists or preservationists) and economic sustainable tourism development (the view of resource consumers). An evaluation of the sustainability of tourism is ultimately an assessment of tourism’s impacts on the economic, socio-cultural and physical environments which in turn involves the determination of the various carrying capacities.
According to recent statistics, the environmental impact of tourism development is of serious concern. In some popular destination, the natural attractions of the area have been damaged or destroyed due to overbuilding and irresponsible development.
The tourism and recreation industry is confronted with serious and difficult choices about its future. The decisions made now will for decades affect the environment, lifestyles and economic opportunity of residents in tourism destination areas. Many of these decisions are irreversible because once communities lose the character that makes them distinctive and attractive to nonresidents, they have lost their ability to vie for tourist-based income in an increasingly global and competitive marketplace. A try to establish the carrying capacity of a tourism destination may facilitate to understand when the resource limits are reached or outgrown so as to assess the sustainability of the tourism development of this area.