A critique of environmental carrying capacity as a means of managing the effects of tourism development

In their paper on environmental carrying capacity, Brown et al. (1997) describe some of the negative impacts of tourism development and propose the carrying capacity framework for addressing these impacts. Though we agree that these impacts should be addressed, we feel that the carrying capacity approach is inadequate for the task in most situations. An examination of the steps that are necessary for establishing a carrying capacity illustrates why this is the case (further discussion is provided in Lindberg et al. 1997).