Difficulty Of Measuring Social Carrying Capacity

Making tourism more sustainable is not just about controlling and managing the negative impacts of the industry. Tourism is in a very special position to benefit local communities, economically and socially, and to raise awareness and support for conservation of the environment.

As you are no doubt well aware, this entire project has been a labor of love for Matt and I. As a group we ran into one road block after another. If nothing else, this project has taught me that everything will not go smoothly, no matter how good the intensions and how to persevere in the face of adversity.

For my essay topic I will be exploring the question of how to eliminate overcrowding while balancing maintenance of Colorado outdoor public recreation areas. I am interested in this topic as I personally use the public areas in Colorado, and I want to see what methods are truly effective going forward to ensure that the residents of Colorado have public access to enjoy the beautiful recreational areas of our state. Many people choose to live in Colorado to be able to take advantage of the temperate climate and access to spectacular mountain areas that are shared with visitors from all over the world. The ability to use the parks in Colorado is determined by state and national government, and there are many vested parties seeking to influence how they are managed. Stakeholders include those proposing change in national policy to drastically cut back on funding, preservation groups, and those considering how to honor the initial mission statements of

Waterfront is a priority economic area for local, regional and national development (NACOMA, 2007). Waterfront-based activities can provide employment but they are also likely to cause social and environmental impact. Biological hotspots, breeding areas, environmental sensitive areas may suffer from uncontrolled tourism development and activities. These impacts however can be effectively mitigated through careful planning and design of sustainable tourism activities.

The Tourism Industry uses that to their advantage to make lots of money off these people. They all book flights through Travelocity, Kayak, Expedia etc. Almost everyone stays in a five star hotel and expects to be treated as VIP guests. Hotels take up most of supplies that we are short of. People have an itinerary of activities to get through for their trip . In the upside it provides more job for people who live there since it’s a busy attraction destination are. It raises awareness and shows off the beauty of their destination especially in poorer countries. But the downside of tourism is the environmental damage it provides. There will be lots of pollution since people are site seeing. The over capacity of people staying at one area is a major concern. Major tourism attraction areas like ancient buildings, monuments, and temples often struggle to cope with the vast amounts of tourist traffic and they suffer wear and tear or damage. Pristine sites and natural national park and wildlife parks are ought to be saved. These areas are old and fragile so it must be protected and preserved. Traditions are lost when people put on a costume and act just for a couple of dollars. Tourists don’t acknowledge or follow the policy acting like they own the place. Dressing how they want, eating how they want and doing what they want

Social health is about the connection that we make with others, as humans we are a community that

Fredline, E., & Faulkner, B. (2000). Host community reactions: a cluster analysis. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(3)

Social capital can be found any many different forms, but when discussing similarities and difference in church and the workplace it is very close to comparing apples and oranges. My view is that when we are at work there is not much time for talking of politics, except for a small time frame during lunch, the occasional smoke break (if you’re a smoker). Although there are other small bites of time in passing that there is a sporadic case of networking that is happening while in passing. One of the biggest reason for the decline for social capital in the workplace are unions are not as common as they were in earlier years. Since the mid 1950’s unions have tumbled from 32.5% to 14.1% (Putnam, 2000, p. 81). The cause for this decline of unions in today’s work I feel stems from not needing unions since there already is so many other labor enforcement protection agencies in place unions are a thing of the past. Large and growing fraction of the American workforce has nonstandard jobs (temp-workers, independent contractors, on call workers) ( (Putnam, 2000, p. 90). Additionally, the economy and the lack of well-paying jobs are still in hiding, regardless what is being reported. According to a Roper poll the proportion of Americans satisfied with their jobs fell from 46% in mid-1970’s to 36% in 1992; some of this disaffection is traceable to concerns of about job security and personal finances (Putnam, 2000, p. 91).

The use of natural resources to attract tourists, if successful, leads to the obligation of an infrastructure upon ‘nature’. Over time, it is the manmade structures that maintain the desirability of the tourist resort, not the natural features that prompted the original.(Ryan, 1991) Thus by focusing too much on attracting tourists

As I was contemplating a topic for this paper on, I happened to be reading the chapter in Pastimes, our textbook, which talks about ecotourism and sustainable tourism. I frankly had never really considered the impact millions of visitors had on a state Park or national monument, and the idea of sustainable tourism as defined by Russell, “controlling visitation to tourist sites so that impacts are neither permanent or irreversible.” I found myself thinking more and more about leisure pursuits and how they do impact society as a whole. For example if I am a kayaker, what were the impacts of producing my kayak on the environment? What is the impact of me kayaking on fish and other wildlife in the river or lake ? Being a student, I don’t travel much and I am not a kayaker, but what about my own leisure activities? How does my primary hobby, gardening, either positively or negatively impact the environment and/or society as a

Carrying capacity is closely linked with environment. Every tourist region has a carrying capacity for tourists as well as for any other type of use. This capacity varies with the fragility of the area concerned and the nature of the tourist activity contemplated. For example, an island rainforest is a very fragile environment which could be easily endangered by excessive number of tourists using it.

The diagram above shows recreation, leisure, sports, tourism, and parks as being interconnected, with each possibly depending on each other for success. Recreation refers to an activity that in individual participates in with a structured timeframe (Introduction, 2013, p. 4). Leisure has multiple meanings, one being “Unobligated time, state of being, and consumption patterns,” in addition to occurring outside of working life (Introduction, 2013, p. 4). Sport occurs during leisure time, either as an active participant or as a spectator. Tourism refers to travel, particularly away from home for a specific period of time. Parks are protected lands that are available for the utilization of the public. Again, the diagram shows how each of these concepts may overlap. Yet, even though these concepts can connect and overlap they can also exist individually.

They also get to be mindful of new tastes and ways of thinking, which may prompt expanded resistance among the hosts and the guests. Next, for the tourism can create minimum amount of interest to support local expressions which is the chance to offer local artworks. After a long list of advantages, there are negative effects of social and cultural aspects also. The term social carrying capacity is name the measure of individuals that a general public and its land area can tolerate without generous harm to its way of life. Potential guests to another society may bring so as to bring about issues inferable from congestion or new practices. The disadvantages social and culture of tourism is demonstration effect such as in some locations, tourism has caused what is termed the demonstration effect. Comparing with their own lifestyles, the local residents often see the visitors as uniformly wealthy and in possession of all the good things in life. This display of material goods and affluence may lead to envy and resentment from the locals. A decline in the moral conduct in the local community, such as promiscuity, prostitution, alcohol, and drug use; is particularly damaging to a society that had few of these behaviors owning to

Tourism is integrated in economic and social development programs and can be considered as a method to protect the natural and social capital upon which the industry is built (McCool and Moisey 2001 and Hunter 1997). According to Robinson (1999 cited in McCool 2002), tourism is viewed as a tool which is sometimes might be important to a community and other times not so important. Therefore, it is not said that protecting cultures for the value of the tourism industry, but for the value to the people.The carrying capacity studies began during the 1930’s (O’Reilly, 1986; Saveriades, 2000), they were principally developed in the 1960’s in the national parks of the United States of America (McCool and Lime, 2001; Manning ., 2002).

“Tourism Carrying Capacity is defined by the “World Tourism Organization” as the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing destruction of the physical, economic, socio-cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of visitor satisfaction”