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The paper presents a case of tourism carrying capacity study for the County of Split Dalmatia. The county recorded the highest tourism growth in recent years, and it is exposed to high seasonal tourism pressure, especially in several urban areas and along narrow coastline belt. The study’s methodology approach is based on the recognition of key constraints or 'bottlenecks' that prevent further growth of tourist arrivals in a given area over a given time, taking into account the current state of the tourism product. The estimates of key tourism development indicators, both, variable and non-variable ones, were based on data collected from the relevant and reliable secondary sources and primary research that included: (i) survey of local population attitudes towards tourism on a representative sample of 1, 500 County residents, (ii) survey of local government attitudes towards tourism on a sample of 12 cities and 25 municipalities, (iii) in-depth interviews with tourism stakeholders, and (iv) detailed observation, including photo shooting of the county's territory from the air during the peak tourist season when the pressure on space and community is the greatest. The research results indicate that the area of Split-Dalmatia County, as non-variable element of carrying capacity, provides opportunities for accepting significantly more tourists than today. The main limiting factors of further tourism growth are the variable elements of carrying capacity, primarily the utility and transport infrastructure, which have not adequately followed the development needs of the local population, while the tourist demand has only increased these problems. The results indicate that some of the County clusters almost reached the limit of a sustainable number of visitors in high tourist season and that the number of tourists in two summer months should not be increased under the current circumstances. |
