ESPON Targeted Analysis “Carrying capacity methodology for tourism” starts its stakeholder dialogue

Sabine Sedlacek, Head of the Department of Sustainability, Governance, and Methods, and Bozana Zekan, from the Department of Tourism and Service Management at Modul University Vienna, attended the first Steering Group meeting in the course of the ESPON project “Carrying capacity methodology for tourism” which was held in Brežice, Slovenia.

The overall goal of the service contract is to determine the carrying capacity in regions dominated by tourism, thereby helping local leaders analyze and assess the impact of tourism in their regions based on indicators for the economic, social, and environmental aspect affected.

During the first Steering Group meeting the project team, headed by the project coordinator Bernd Schuh from ÖIR (Austrian Institute for Regional Studies), presented the first deliverable, the inception report, which was approved during the meeting. In the presence of regional stakeholders and the ESPON EGTC representative Sandra Di Biaggio, the project team (ÖIR, MU, SEBLU) provided an overview of the work done so far, the conceptual framework of the project, as well as the steps taken in the development of the methodology and a first outline of the application approach to the case studies. In the city hall of Brežice, the stakeholders got the first impression about the usability and value of the methodology to be developed. The team discussed the details for the methodological development demonstrating how certain indicators measuring the carrying capacity of tourist destinations could help the stakeholders anticipate future development in their destinations and avoid overcrowding.

The focus of this project will lie on big data, new technologies, artificial intelligence and high-performing computing. Innovative and available indicators, such as tourist arrivals, internet data, social media reviews, seasonality, and pollution will be analyzed. In the context of the service contract, local, regional and EU policy practitioners will be advised on how to identify, manage and measure the carrying capacity in their specific territorial context.

Related subjects at MU Vienna:

BSc in International Management with a Specialization in Entrepreneurship and Governance
MBA with a Specialization in Sustainable Management and Governance
MSc in Sustainable Development, Management and Policy