Optimal carrying capacity in rural tourism: Crowding, quality deterioration, and productive inefficiency

This paper introduces a novel framework for characterizing destination overcrowding in rural tourism using a production approach. We build upon destination life cycle, carrying capacity, and consumer preference theories to characterize optimal levels of overnight stays in the presence of disutility...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTourism management (1982) Vol. 105; p. 104968
Main Authors Baños-Pino, José Francisco, Boto-García, David, Zapico, Emma, Mayor, Matías
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2024
Subjects
Carrying capacity
Crowding
Frontier analysis
Quality deterioration
Rural tourism
Frontier analysis
Carrying capacity
Crowding
Rural tourism
Quality deterioration
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Summary:This paper introduces a novel framework for characterizing destination overcrowding in rural tourism using a production approach. We build upon destination life cycle, carrying capacity, and consumer preference theories to characterize optimal levels of overnight stays in the presence of disutility from crowding. Using panel data for rural tourism in Spanish provinces, we model crowding non-linearly as a demand shifter within a service production function. To deal with plausible endogeneity, we use a control function approach within a Stochastic Frontier regression. Consistent with our theoretical predictions, we show there is a non-linear concave relationship between overnight stays and crowding. We calculate optimal carrying capacity levels (turning points) for each province and illustrate which regions are exhibiting negative externalities from overcrowding.
ISSN:0261-5177
1879-3193
DOI:10.1016/j.tourman.2024.104968