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Tourism development on small islands presents acute sustainability challenges due to ecological fragility, spatial constraints, and reliance on limited natural and social resources. This study integrates carrying capacity and destination resilience to address the limitations of static capacity models and to develop a multidimensional indicator framework for sustainable island tourism. Grounded in tourism geography and sustainability science, the framework conceptualizes small islands as socio ecological systems shaped by feedbacks, scale interactions, and long term transformation. It was developed through a review of sustainability and resilience literature and refined through semi structured interviews with government, industry, academic, and community stakeholders. A purposive expert survey in Xiaoliuqiu, Taiwan evaluated the relevance and applicability of indicators across environmental sustainability, local economic development, sociocultural impacts, and policy and governance. Findings show strong economic contributions but also increasing environmental pressure, especially congestion and waste, along with governance challenges related to coordination, enforcement, and community engagement. By linking ecological thresholds with institutional capacity and adaptive governance, the study advances theoretical debates on limits and resilience and provides policymakers and destination managers with a practical tool to monitor sustainability risks, prioritize actions, and support adaptive management in fragile island contexts.
Hung et al. (Tue,) studied this question.