ABSTRACT
In any locality there is a strong relationship between society, economy and environment. Environmental and other geographic features create locational advantages attracting people and economic activities. Human activities and patterns of living are often based on local environmental conditions and resources while at the same time they may affect them. Quite often the degradation of the environment may have impacts on people and their activities, as in the case of tourism. To the extent that such effects do not significantly disturb the structure and dynamics of local human and natural ecosystems there is a perceived state of balance or ‘harmony’ perceived in a dynamic sense of continuing gradual change and adaptation. A critical issue in this perspective is the capacity of a system to assimilate change, which also brings forward also the notion of its thresholds or limits. This is the conceptual basis of carrying capacity in tourism planning and management (Coccossis, 2002; Coccossis and Parpairis, 2000).
