RETHINKING CONTEMPORARY ROLE OF CARRYING CAPACITY IN DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Carrying capacity in tourism is perceived as rather straightforward tool for enabling preservation of tourism resources, either natural or man-made. However, contemporary tourism research has been focused on sustainability issues, dazzling the fact that two concepts are strongly interconnected. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to rethink the importance of this concept in contemporary scientific research. The research is undertaken based on the available literature on carrying capacity in tourism. The aim is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of findings within this research field and to examine whether contemporary conclusions were adjusted to the increase in growth rates of tourism worldwide. Conclusions were tested on the case study of the Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia in order to determine how this concept is applied and used by local stakeholders. The research conducted in this paper has confirmed that limitations of rethinking the concept of carrying capacity arise from the stage of tourism destination development and unreadiness of policy-makers to distance from quantitative approach and adopt overarching strategies of determining usage limits of a certain site. The research emphasizes main deficiencies of interpretation and potentials of carrying capacity in ensuring long-term quality of tourism resources. The occurrence of overtourism in destinations can be regarded as a result of inappropriate implementation of carrying capacity at destination level. It is therefore in the center of this research to determine the contemporary role of this concept in the process of developing sustainable tourism destinations.