Carrying Capacity Assessment In Tourism: The Case Of Northern Sporades Islands

Tourism is the main economic activity in Greece. Carrying capacity assessment is now important for the sustainable development of tourist destinations as it is also an antiquated approach to managing the impacts of the tourist industry on the environment. Northern Sporades consists of four islands; accommodation comprises of over 30,000 beds and more than 400,000 visitors per year, differing by their development limits. The environment, both natural and manmade, characterizes the tourist product for the islands. For the Greek Islands, the environment plays a leading role in the tourist industry. It is the purpose of this paper to apply the principles of carrying capacity assessment to Northern Sporades islands in order to state the tourism business opportunities. In this study we have used environmental indexes to estimate the impact of development on the environment, in order to suggest a sustainable tourism development proposal.