Carrying Capacity Assessments for Sustainable Tourism in A Heritage Site

In a heritage site, it is important to stay within the carrying capacity and manage the site through tourism carrying capacity (TCC) to ensure sustainability. This study contributes to the conceptual framework of TCC studies by re-evaluating a natural area preservation methodology (IUCN) developed by Cifuentes in a multi-characteristic heritage site for physical, real, and effective carrying capacities (PCCs, RCCs, ECCs) and also inspects the social carrying capacities (SCCs) using two basic theories. These TCC assessments were made for the visitor management zones (VMZs) defined within the Site Management Plan (SMP) area composed of “Mount Harşena and the Rock-tombs of the Pontic Kings” heritage site in Amasya, Türkiye, placed in the World Heritage Sites’ tentative list since 2015. Results of the re-evaluation suggested the suitability of using Cifuentes’s model in multi-characteristic heritage sites changing from isolated archeological-natural to peopled urban site zones of cultural importance. Different from SCC studies, in general, using either Doxey’s Irritation Index or Butler’s TALC model, findings from the inspections of SCCs in the cultural zones of the SMP area with the two models supported each other and made the results more robust. Both models have been validated empirically for both non-tourism-dependent and tourism-dependent resident populations.