Petya Ivanova
An Analysis of Tourist Visits to Bulgaria in Terms of
its Carrying Capacity
Summary:
The article consists of two parts: 1) Theoretical and methodological issues related to the carrying capacity of tourism destinations, and 2) Analysis of the tourist visits - tourist presence relationship in Bulgaria.
The first part provides a detailed definition of the term "carrying ca-pacity of a tourism destination" and presents its main dimensions in a systematic way. It defines the essential characteristics of the basic parameters and provides examples. The results obtained in theoretical and methodological plan are good theoretical basis for further studies on the carrying capacity of tourism destination.
The second presents an analysis of tourist visits to Bulgaria in the period 2009 – 2014 in four aspects: length of stay; the characteristics of the tourists/residents; the geographic concentration of visitors; the degree of seasonality. Tourist visits are evaluated in these four aspects in terms of the carrying capacity concept.
