Managing tourism and sport for the future practice questions.

Visitors to a busy beach at Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava (Spain) say it now feels too crowded to enjoy, although there is still space on the sand and no damage to the beach ecosystem has been reported. Which type of carrying capacity has been exceeded?

• Perceptual carrying capacity
• Physical carrying capacity
• Infrastructural carrying capacity
• Ecological carrying capacity

Answer: Perceptual carrying capacity

Perceptual capacity is reached when the quality of the experience falls, which happens well before the site is physically full or ecologically damaged; ignoring it is how resorts lose repeat visitors while their occupancy data still look healthy.

Which scheme best matches the definition of ecotourism used in IB Geography?

• A 400-room beach hotel that asks guests to reuse towels
• A community-run lodge whose fees fund habitat protection
• A cruise itinerary marketed as 'green' for using cleaner fuel
• A ski resort using artificial snow to extend its season

Answer: A community-run lodge whose fees fund habitat protection

Ecotourism requires small-scale travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, benefits local people financially and includes interpretation; reducing one input, as in the towel or fuel examples, changes efficiency but not who benefits or what is conserved.

Bhutan charges most international visitors a daily levy. What is the stated logic of this policy?

• High value with low volume, limiting pressure while raising revenue per visitor
• Maximising arrivals to raise total foreign exchange earnings
• Excluding all foreign visitors from the country entirely
• Encouraging visitors to travel independently without any planning

Answer: High value with low volume, limiting pressure while raising revenue per visitor

The levy prices access rather than rationing it administratively, so revenue per visitor is high and numbers stay manageable relative to the country's infrastructure and cultural sites. The criticism is that it makes access dependent on wealth.

Barcelona has capped tourist accommodation licences in its central districts and restricted new short-term letting permits. Which problem is this aimed at?

• Loss of housing for residents as flats shift to visitor letting
• A shortage of hotel rooms during the peak summer season
• The absence of any tourist tax on overnight stays
• Insufficient marketing of the city to international visitors

Answer: Loss of housing for residents as flats shift to visitor letting

Where letting to visitors pays more than letting to residents, housing leaves the residential market and rents rise for everyone, which is the specific grievance behind the city's measures. This is a housing policy applied through tourism regulation.

Costa Rica has built its tourism industry around protected areas, certification of sustainable operators and reforestation. Which feature makes this model economically self-reinforcing?

• The protected forest is the product, so conservation protects the income
• Certification removes the need for any national park entry charges
• Visitors are unaware that the forest was ever cleared for cattle
• Reforestation is funded entirely by international aid rather than tourism

Answer: The protected forest is the product, so conservation protects the income

Where the attraction is the ecosystem itself, degradation destroys the asset, so the industry has a direct commercial interest in conservation. The alignment is not automatic elsewhere: a beach resort can survive the loss of the reef offshore.

A national park manager sets a limit on the number of climbers permitted on a route each day, based on erosion rates and the capacity of mountain huts. Which concept is being applied?

• Carrying capacity, in its physical and ecological sense
• The tourism multiplier, applied to mountain communities
• Butler's model, applied to a single route
• Leakage, since climbers spend money outside the park

Answer: Carrying capacity, in its physical and ecological sense

Carrying capacity asks how much use a site can absorb before the resource or the experience degrades, and it has physical, ecological, perceptual and economic dimensions that give different numbers. Stating which dimension a limit is based on is what makes the figure defensible.