A thesis submitted in paitial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002

This research aims to present an application of tourism carrying capacity being context specific to an urban destination with rich heritage content: Vigan (Philippines). Tourism development at the destination is special-event driven, highly seasonal and its main characteristics are the short stay of visitors and a lack of diversity of attractions. Current tourism carrying capacity of the destination is low, basically due to a limited supply of tourism services in terms of accommodation and leisure facilities. Four carrying capacity issues are identified and discussed, namely: short length of stay of visitors, inadequate accommodation facilities both in quantity and quality of services provided, isolation of the destination both geographically and market wise and a closed entrepreneurship environment. Given monitoring framework of current carrying capacity is based on five management objectives and twenty indicators. Assessment of tourism carrying capacity as a management tool have been proven useful when linked to ongoing tourism planning, but requirements in terms of data availability and a participatory decision-making environment have to be met. Further research has to be oriented to include seasonality into the discussion and come up with a working geographical scale when applying the concept to a given destination.