PROGRAMME

Estimating the ecotourism carrying capacity (ETCC) in protected areas (PAs) is essential to mitigate negative impacts of ecotourism on the natural environment and to achieve sustainable environmental management. Carrying capacity for tourists is the number of people that may visit a protected area during any given period, which: (i) maximizes long-term protection of the area's objective, and (ii) does not cause irreversible depletion of provisioning ecosystem services that may affect of visitor's satisfaction. This paper focuses on the estimation of tourism carrying capacity of a natural protected area, such as the one of lagoon, Divari beach and Voidokilia in the wider area of Gialova in the Region of Messinia, Greece. The method of assessing the carrying capacity is based on the environmental indicators and specifically on the corresponding indicators proposed by the European program ESPON 2020. The identification and estimation of the appropriate indicators for the area under study is carried out computationally and/or through data-driven by the bibliography and structure questionnaire answered by local residents and entrepreneurs. The final indicators’ results determine the overall condition of the area while several measures are proposed in order to achieve a further sustainable and within permissible limits development of the studied area. Therefore, since similar areas have, also, a limited ability to attract visitors and develop ecotourism, the protection of these areas requires immediate action including the implementation of sustainable management so that to mitigate the negative impacts of ecotourism and, finally, estimate the allowed number of visitors.