Management of Large Numbers of Visitors – Carrying Capacity from a

Consultant's Perspective
Al Shacklett
ORCA Consulting

Introduction
At the temples and sites in Angkor, Cambodia as well as at other cultural and natural resource
destinations throughout the world, high volumes of tourism are resulting in degradation of the natural
and cultural resources at these destinations. A number of news articles have been published recently
describing how tourists are “loving our parks to death” and “killing the goose that laid the golden eggs”
at various renown destinations. However, these situations are not entirely hopeless. In fact, by
implementing the appropriate management tools and techniques, it is often possible to develop”win-
win” situations through the implementation of sustainable models that preserve and protect the
resources, contribute to the local economy, and maintain steady or growing tourism volumes for
decades to come.

Effects of excessive visitation and overcrowding

Resource deterioration occurs at cultural and natural resource sites whenever the visitation volumes
exceed the ability of the site to support these volumes. This deterioration, along with chronic
overcrowded conditions at these sites, also negatively impacts the quality of the visitors' experience
which in turn results in reduced discretionary tourism spending and eventually can even lead to a
decrease in tourism volumes due to reduced repeat visitation and the reverse-marketing impact of
negative “word-of-mouth”. It can be said that resource conditions and the quality of visitor experiences
are often two sides of the same coin. These issues point to the need for the implementation of
management tools to (a) measure the visitation capacity of sites and the quality of the visitors'
experience, (b) improve visitation capacity and experience quality, and (c) ensure that capacity and
quality standards are not, or only rarely, exceeded.
These problems are not new by any means, nor ones that have not already been frequently addressed by
many experts. For example, in a 1964 treatise, The Carrying Capacity of Wild Lands for Recreation, J.
A. Wagar states that “the view that carrying capacity of recreation lands could be determined primarily
in terms of ecology and the deterioration of areas...must be augmented by consideration of human
values.” Today, there is an extensive vocabulary of buzzwords, and a wide variety of planning
approaches available to assess resource conditions, site carrying capacities, visitor experience quality,
and the interconnections between these issues. Perhaps the most comprehensive guideline that has
been developed to date is the VERP (Visitor Experience and Resource Protection) process, a nine-
element “framework” adopted by the U.S. National Park Service as an important planning tool for
assessing these complex issues. Regardless of the specific approach used, key considerations for all
such efforts to study visitation issues at any site include the following:
1. The analysis approach and solutions must be tailored to the specific needs at a site,
2. Resource conditions, site carrying capacity and quality of the visitor experience must all be
assessed as a holistic unit, rather than independently, and
3. Local stakeholders must be engaged in the identification of issues and development of
solutions.
The need to address these critical issues leads to the following important questions:
What is the carrying capacity of a site? How can it be measured? What are the immediate and long-
term consequences of exceeding the carrying capacity? What measures can be taken to ensure that the
carrying capacity is not exceeded?
What are the elements that affect the quality of the visitors' experience? How can these be measured?
What are the consequences of low-quality (or less than achievable) visitor experiences?
What are the elements that contribute to resource protection? How can these be measured? What are
the consequences of failure to protect the key resources?

Solutions to excessive visitation and overcrowding

First, a realistic carrying capacity level (or capacity range) must be established. In some cases, this
process is straightforward, but only if the capacity factors can be easily measured. More often
however, in-depth study is needed to identify and quantify the factors that impact carrying capacity.
For example, at many national parks in the U.S., visitor surveys have been conducted to assess the
relationship between crowding conditions and visitor satisfaction levels – the results of these surveys
have been used to help establish carrying capacities at several national parks. Other studies have also
been conducted to assess the relationship of visitation levels and resource conditions in order to
establish carrying capacities that can mitigate resource deterioration.
Often, there is an opportunity to effect an increase in the carrying capacity of a site, without impacting
the key resources, through a combination of infrastructure improvements and operational procedures.
For example, the implementation of designated viewing areas with railings at the key resources of a site
can have a significant impact on increasing the carrying capacity while helping to protect the resources.

Mathers Point at Grand Canyon National Park

Studies were conducted at the Grand Canyon to establish visitation carrying capacities.
Designated viewing areas at the Grand Canyon are designed to protect resources and increase carrying capacity.
 Also, the development of supplemental activity areas, such as visitor centers or additional resource
areas, can improve the distribution of the on-site crowds thus increasing the total site carrying
capacity.
Planned new Visitor Center for USS Arizona Memorial

New visitor center will result in increased visitor carrying capacity of the site.

Capacity can also be increased through the implementation of operational procedures, including the use
of crowd control staffing and equipment at the major congestion points.

Statue of Liberty Monument Tour Covered Queue Area

Queue area for Monument tour keeps waiting crowds organized and sheltered.
Once the carrying capacity of a site is established, it should then be compared to the visitation volumes
in order to assess the frequency and duration of events during which the capacity is exceeded. These
factors can be used to quantify the magnitude of overcrowding and as a basis for tailoring a solution
that best meets the conditions for a specific site. If it is found that overcrowding is an infrequent
occurrence (typically, less than 20 days per year), then simple crowd control measures can often be
implemented, such as queuing systems to manage wait lines and meter visitors into capacity-
constrained areas.
Whenever excessive visitation is determined to be a chronic problem that cannot be entirely solved by
improving infrastructure and operational procedures, other measures are warranted to reduce peak
visitation levels. The most effective strategies are ones that encourage a portion of visitors to shift their
visits to off-peak periods. These off-peak periods can include off-peak hours on busy days (e.g.: early
morning, late afternoon, evening), off-peak days of the week (e.g.: Mondays through Thursdays are
often less busy than the Friday to Sunday weekend period), and non-peak seasons (often, the
“shoulder” seasons represent the best opportunities for shifting visitation from peak seasons). Potential
tools for shifting visitation include measures such as pricing incentives, advanced reservation systems,
timed ticketing systems, coordination with tour companies, and strategic scheduling of special events
and programs.

Managing the Visitor Experience

For most cultural and natural resource sites, it is important to ensure a long-term trend of sustained
visitation levels. Often, it is desirable to encourage visitation growth and/or increased revenues from
tourism, especially when a portion of these revenues can be used to help preserve the resources. To
achieve these visitation goals, it is important to maintain a high level of visitor satisfaction related to
visits to these sites. High satisfaction levels can translate into increases in discretionary spending,
visitor length of stay, repeat visitation and positive word-of-mouth to friends and families. Conversely,
low satisfaction levels can translate into increased negative word-of-mouth to friends and families and
decreases in spending, length of stay and repeat visitation. As previously described, overcrowding is a
major issue that directly impacts both the site carrying capacity and visitor satisfaction levels. The
implementation of strategic measures to manage the visitors' experience can achieve improvements in
resource preservation, site carrying capacity and visitor experience quality. These measures include:
Setting the stage for the visitors' experience. Ideally, a destination site should include an arrival
area that is designed to support a combination of the following objectives: providing site
orientation, conveying key messages, helping to build a sense of anticipation for the upcoming
visit, soliciting financial support, engaging the visitor in the mission of the organization,
encouraging visitor interactions with friendly and helpful staff personnel, and offering a varied
menu of visitation experiences.
Providing the appropriate level wayfinding graphics to help visitors navigate the site. The key
to an effective wayfinding program is to provide the essential information at the key decision
points, but to avoid information overload. Note that, in general, visitors prefer to have a limited
number of decision options and are very cooperative in following directions and guidelines, as
long as these are made very clear to them.
Eliminating circulation choke points. Sometimes, inherent pinch points or design deficiencies
within a site can cause regular occurrences of circulation gridlock at these points or congested
clumps of visitors that move around the site en masse. In these cases, the congestion problems
should be resolved or mitigated through the implementation of measures to identify and
improve the choke points.
 Developing an effective path network. Pedestrian paths function very much like roads and
highways for vehicular traffic, and should be designed specifically to accommodate the types
and volumes of traffic that occur on busy days. Major path intersections represent key decision
points and should be designed for clear wayfinding.
Providing sufficient visitor amenities. It must be recognized that visitors judge the quality of
their overall experience, not only by their experience at the key cultural and natural resources,
but also by their ability to access desired amenities. Along with the basic needs of rest areas,
water, and bathrooms, visitors also appreciate additional conveniences such as food service, gift
shops, and stroller and locker rentals – all of these should be sized and configured to meet the
visitation levels on high volume days.
Providing a variety of interpretive experiences. Not only can visitors' level of interest be
improved by offering a diversity of experiences; the visitors' length of stay and the site carrying
capacity can also be increased.

Self-sustaining financial structure

To achieve the objectives of resource preservation, sustained visitation levels and visitor experience
quality, it is important to ensure that the appropriate financial mechanisms are in place to support the
implementation of site infrastructure and operational procedures designed to manage the visitor
experience. It must be ensured that a reasonable portion of the tourism value created by a site will flow
back to that site so that these improvements can be funded. These financial mechanisms should include
a combination of the following: admissions revenues, government funding, tourism taxes, donations,
grants, concessions, and the development of special events and programs for higher income visitors and
niche markets.

Conclusion
The resource degradation that is occurring at many natural and cultural sites throughout the world as a
result of excessive tourism volumes cannot be resolved as an isolated problem. Resource conditions,
site carrying capacity and visitor experience quality are all interrelated issues that should be assessed as
a holistic unit. Through detailed analysis of these issues, it is often possible to develop a strategic plan
that can not only reverse the problem of resource degradation, but can also help improve the visitation
carrying capacity of the site and the quality of the visitor experience.