Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Programme 2014 - 2020 ESPON 2020

Date of latest update: 2024-05-18

Description

Description (EN):

The main objective of this service contract is to provide an empirical foundation for destinations and help local leaders assess their situation and identify vulnerabilities in relation to sustainable tourism in the respective territories. This foundation would enable the analysis of carrying capacity for tourism based on innovative and available indicators, including tourist arrivals, internet data, social media reviews, seasonality, and pollution with use of big data, new technologies, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) to be applied to the management of any European tourist destination. The project will also provide recommendations mainly to regional and local practitioners, as well as European, on how to identify and consider their specific territorial context and specificities for measurement of the carrying capacities of tourist destinations across Europe for better management and planning.

Achievements (EN):

The ESPON project “Carrying capacity methodology for tourism” is a targeted analysis covering four tourism destinations in Slovenia and Italy. Its main task is the development and testing of a methodology to measure a regions carrying capacity regarding sustainability aspects related to tourism impact. Especially destinations experiencing strong tourism growth, but also those with high tourism intensity (i.e. a high number of arrivals in relation to the number of local residents) and with high seasonality can be subject to considerable negative effects related to the amount of tourists visiting their area. Destination stakeholders thus have a vested interest in being able to assess if they have reached critical thresholds in their development and what they can undertake to mitigate the related negative effects. For measuring carrying capacity, multiple approaches have been developed in several contexts, which served as an inspiration for the development of the methodology at hand. It was especially designed to fit the needs of local and regional stakeholders and follows a participatory approach. This methodology was tested in four case study destinations located in Slovenia (Bled, Brežice and Divača) and one in a cross-border destination of Nova Gorica/Gorizia at the Slovenian and Italian border. As a conclusion of the reflection on existing methodologies, the project team deducted the following characteristics for the carrying capacity methodology developed: • There is no single denominator for carrying capacity – a multitude of aspects in the socio-economic context of destinations are touched upon and carrying capacity is strongly related to the dimensions of sustainability and its conceptual components (i.e. economy, society and the environment). Still the challenge is to establish a causality between tourism as a sub-sector of the economy and spatial phenomena (flows and concentration) and all these multiple aspects. • There is no single way of capturing the carrying capacity along the different dimensions (social, economic and environmental). The methodological approach meets this challenge by allowing for different ways to assess normative borders for carrying capacities. • There is no unified way to take territorial specifics of tourist destinations into account when assessing their carrying capacity. Not only will carrying capacity be different in different regional circumstances, but there is also no one-size-fits-all approach for assessing carrying capacity of tourist destinations. Therefore, the methodology developed has to take into account those necessary flexibilities, adapt to the local needs and provide guidelines general enough to fit different destinations yet comprehensive enough to provide reliable and valid results. It consists of both quantitative and qualitative elements. Preparatory steps by a moderation/facilitation team are followed by participatory steps, where information gathered is reflected upon with destination stakeholders. Crucially, this allows to combine external expert inputs on tourism development patterns and corresponding management approaches with regional knowledge and experience. The moderated process allows destinations not only to detect their carrying capacities, but to develop actions on the regional/local scale accordingly. Innovative types of data and visualisations of ESPON tourists flows are integrated into the methodology, in order to capture the full picture of local tourism dynamics.

Website: https://archive.espon.eu/

Expected Results (EN):

The main outcomes of this project should be: - Overview of existing methodologies for measuring the carrying capacity of tourist destinations. - Identification of data sources, including innovative methods and alternative data sources and tools for measuring tourist flows and their satisfaction. - Development of a methodology making use of new technologies and alternative data sources for measuring tourist capacity for each different type of stakeholders (municipalities, cities, regions…) and by considering the specific characteristics of the territories and their own vulnerabilities. This should also include an interactive visualisation of tourist flows representing the number of tourists in relation to the three sustainable pillars of sustainability (and corresponding data and indicators). - Territorial evidence based on the methodology developed on the carrying capacity of territories and tourist flows in Europe, encompassing approximately 50 municipalities partners from Croatia and Slovenia and one cross-border city area Nova Gorica (Slovenia) – Gorizia (Italy). In this sense, the methodology and indicators proposed shall consider the three pillars of sustainability - economic, environmental and social, granting a clear approach towards decision-making. - Detailed case studies in the stakeholders’ territories (including identification and analysis of local data sources, a set of maps, practical examples and policy recommendations to answer stakeholders’ needs…). This should include a practical application of the methodology developed. - Policy recommendations to provide appropriate support to measure carrying capacity in the stakeholders’ territories and in other European municipalities, cities and regions.

Thematic information

Tourism

Specific Objective: Upgraded knowledge transfer and use of analytical user support

Thematic Objective:

(11) enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders and efficient public administration through actions to strengthen the institutional capacity and the efficiency of public administrations and public services related to the implementation of the ERDF, and in support of actions under the ESF to strengthen the institutional capacity and the efficiency of public administration.

Investment Priority: (11 ETC) ETC specific for transnational cooperation: enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders and efficient public administration by developing and coordinating macro-regional and sea-basin strategies

Partners (4)

Lead Partner: ÖIR GmbH

Address: Franz-Josefs-Kai 27, A-1010 Vienna, Austria

Legal status: private

MODUL University Vienna Gmbh

Name: MODUL University Vienna Gmbh

Address: Am Kahlenberg 1, 1190 Vienna, Austria

Legal status: private

University of Ljubljana

Name: University of Ljubljana

Address: Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Legal status: public

Alohas

Name: Alohas

Address: Groharjeva 5, 1230 Domžale, Slovenia

Legal status: private

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Öir GmbH

Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Partners and Projects info

Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Partners and Projects info

Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Partners and Projects info

Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Project acronym: TOURISM

Project start date: 2019-11-05

Project end date: 2021-06-22

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 274 000.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 224 050.90

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 224 050.90.

Documents

Documents on this project are listed below, and organised by category. Please note field "Data source", attached to each document. Keep.eu users are free to use these documents as long as they mention the data source and keep.eu.

Studies / surveys

TOURISM: Carrying Capacity Methodology for Tourism Final report

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Study / survey

Data source: https://www.espon.eu/tourism

Publication date: 2023-08-20

Document date: 2022-07-31

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Reports

Peer Learning Workshop “Sustainable Pathways for the Tourism in Malta”

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.espon.eu/tourism

Publication date: 2023-08-20

Document date: 2022-06-15

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Peer Learning Workshop “Sustainable Pathways for the Tourism Industry in Malta”

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.espon.eu/tourism

Publication date: 2023-08-20

Document date: 2022-06-15

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Final Report

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.espon.eu/tourism

Publication date: 2023-08-20

Document date: 2020-11-11

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Case study annex

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.espon.eu/tourism

Publication date: 2023-08-20

Document date: 2020-11-11

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Synthesis Report

Attachment type: file

Type of document: Report

Data source: https://www.espon.eu/tourism

Publication date: 2023-08-20

Document date: 2020-11-11

Languages: en

Attachment file: Download

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 ESPON 2020

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2024-03-04

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

68 / 69 (98.55%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

353 / 370 (95.41%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Data from 3 projects ((MRS. ESPON TOOL, SoET and CPS 2.0) was retrieved by Interact from the programme´s website on the 2024-03-01. Regarding partners only data only main partners is available. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://www.espon.eu), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-09-21 and 2023-01-03.

Languages

Contact Form

Carrying capacity methodology for tourism

Description

Thematic information

Partners (4)

Partners map

Summary

Documents

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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