Carrying capacity as a tool to design tourism policy: case study for the islands of Dodecanese

Abstract

The tourist industry is one of the most important economic activities in Greece. The country receives over 20 million visitors per year. In an era where tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of developing countries the competition with existing tourism destinations, such as Greece, will intensify. Greece has enjoyed increasing numbers and revenues from tourism due to its unique environment both natural and man-made - making it a high profile tourist destination. However, it is already clear that the uncontrolled growth of the industry can bring serious environmental and social problems, leading to a decline in the quality of the tourist product and services provided. Tourism development is related to environment and natural resources management. Carrying capacity indices are tools for evaluation of the impacts caused from tourism policies. In previous studies we produced a model of carrying capacity evaluation. In this study we go one step further using the results of our analysis for Greek Islands archipelago Dodecanese to design a sustainable tourism policy scenario.