Assessment of Environment Carrying Capacity of Sam Son Tourism Area

Truong Sy Vinh, Nguyen Thuy Van, and Vu Chien Thang

Institute For Tourism Development Research, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam

Abstract: The tourism environmental carrying capacity (TECC) of a tourism area is understood as the capacity to satisfy the maximum tourist number in the space of the tourism area without harming the natural, economic, socio-cultural environment and the quality of traveler experience. To date, a number of studies on assessment of TECC of tourism area by national and international scholars whose are in different approaches. Yet, it its noted that each tourism area has different characteristics in terms of its nature, scope, socio-economic situations, and capacity of making the best use of its potentials... Thus, it is required to select appropriate calculation methods for evaluation. This study applies the existing calculation methods to evaluate the environment capacity of Sam Son tourism area. Accordingly, it provides recommendations for sustainable tourism development that satisfies the TECC limits.

Key words: tourism, environment, tourism environment carrying capacity (TECC), Sam Son Tourism Area (SSTA)