Carrying Capacity Approaches to Tourism and the resilience of local social-ecological systems: Bed-Capping on Lord Howe Island versus Migratory Control on Fernando de Noronha Archipelago

Abstract

Acknowledgement of tourism development negative impacts to local social-ecological systems has sparked much debate and research into tourist carrying capacity and its implementation over the last 30 years. While tourism impact grows with tourist numbers, different tourist profiles and behaviours can influence the precision of impact forecasting for defining the number of tourists a destination should target not to exceed. Considering this challenge, a plethora of alternative visitor management tools have been proposed, including: Visitor Impact Management - VIM, Recreation Opportunity Spectrum – ROS; Limits of Acceptable Change – LAC, among others. However, when it comes to destinations port..