ABSTRACT
The concept of carrying capacity has been well established in the tourism literature, even allowing for debate as to the difficulties of measurement and implementation (e.g. see Mathieson and Wall 1982). Both Chinese and foreign scholars are aware that long-term sustainability of any tourist destination or site is subject to constraints imposed by the tolerance of the natural and social environments for a given number of visitors, even though good destination management techniques may permit a site to absorb quite large numbers of visitors without observable detrimental impacts, and indeed revenues gained may well help not only conserve but re-establish past damaged terrain (e.g. see Ryan and Stewart 2008). However, most studies adopt the perspective of a supply-led view-point with reference to the actual resource and its nature, and visitors are, in a sense, the determined variable in that the objective is to assess what levels of visitation are consistent with the tolerated impacts arising from those visits. This chapter adopts a different perspective. Carrying capacity involves more than one factor, and is determined by both supply and demand, and the perceptions and subsequent behaviours of visitors are themselves a determining factor when ascertaining the carrying capacity of a site. Therefore, when conducting research to assess carrying capacity it is necessary to not only consider the resources of tourist facilities, infrastructure and the natural and social environment, but one should also pay close attention to the expectations, motives and psychological characteristics of the visitors and their interactions with residents at the destination. Only in this way might one arrive at a better and more comprehensive understanding of the carrying capacity of a given destination or site.
