TOURISM CARRYING CAPACITY EVALUATION AS AN ELEMENT OF A TOURISM DESTINY PERFORMANCE: A CANCUN CASE STUDY, EVALUACION DE LA CAPACIDAD DE CARGA TURISTICA COMO ELEMENTO DE ANALISIS DEL DESEMPENO DE UN DESTINO TURISTICO: CASO CANCUN

Christine Mc Coy

Revista Internacional Administracion & Finanzas, 2016, vol. 9, issue 6, 59-80

Abstract: The model of development in this paper was based on a comprehensive study of carrying capacity that evaluated infrastructure needed based on a certain amount of rooms and the population size that would live in down town in 30 years. Cancun was the first tourist destination to have a development master plan that gave life to the concept of integrally planned centers in Mexico. At the time, this was an innovative vision because it contemplated a balanced and sustainable tourist destination with interesting opportunities of employment and investment, always in harmony with the natural environment. In this work a diagnosis of the situation that led Cancun to lose its sustainability is performed. For this assessment the management of land-use of the touristic zone was evaluated to make an analysis of the tourist current capacity based on two aspects: 1) The profile of tourists through the analysis of tourist growth rate and the growth rate of the income and 2) the impacts generated by tourism activity in the biotic load, environmental, economic, cultural and social capacity. We found that the profile of tourists has been affected, so it has impacted tourism sustainability. On the other hand, the biotic and environmental carrying capacity exceeded what represents an impact on the environmental sustainability. The economic and cultural carrying capacity are equally damaged, so the social sustainability goal despite being acceptable is not met. The foregoing demonstrates that accelerated and disordered growth has led Cancun to confront a situation that keeps it from being a sustainable tourist destination.

Keywords: Touristic Carrying Capacity; Sustainable Tourist Destination; Sustainable Development; Cancun (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O1 O2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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