ABSTRACT
Tourism depends on the natural and human environment for its existence. To host large numbers of tourists and provide them with a satisfactory experience, destinations must cope with high demand and pressure on their infrastructure and basic services. High consumption of water and energy, the generation of waste, and the utilization of transportation infrastructure by tourists are matters of concern for managers at most destinations. As pointed out by Gunn (1994), this mounting pressure on environmental services results when planners do not plan adequately. After the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in 1992, all industries, including tourism, came under environmental scrutiny, bringing sustainable tourism-an approach that aims to destroy the boom and bust syndrome and manage resources sustainably-into focus. Several environmental management tools such as environmental management systems (EMS), environmental impact assessment (EIA), and cleaner production have been well received and widely implemented as tools that can help to achieve sustainable tourism. However, carrying capacity, another potentially potent tool of environmental management, is a concept that, due to its complexity, has not been widely accepted as a tool for sustainable tourism planning.
