PERAN CARRYING CAPACITY DALAM PERENCANAAN PARIWISATA BERKELANJUTAN

ABSTRACT Success in the development and management of a tourist destination is determined by how far the quality of planning. One technique that is quite popular in the planning and development of sustainable tourism is the carrying capacity. This paper aims to discuss the role of carrying capacity in sustainable tourism planning, factors and variables that are generally taken into account in the calculation of carrying capacity, and implementation (best practice) of carrying capacity calculations. Carrying capacity, one of the concepts and tools of planning and development of tourism, is dynamic and has a broad spectrum. Its implementation is very casuistic (in different space and time has a different conclusion) but with high complexity (carrying capacity in certain aspects cannot be used as a benchmark for decision making before juxtaposed with other aspects). Determination of factors and variables in measuring carrying capacity must take into account the internal factors (supply side from the point of destination) and external factors (demand side from the point of tourists). From the supply side at least includes the economic, social, cultural, and environmental variables. Whereas, most of the demand side at least includes the demography variables. The best practice of carrying capacity measurements show that although it has a dynamic and a complex nature, carrying capacity still can be used as a useful tool of tourism planning and development to prevent further degradation of tourism destinations. Keywords: carrying capacity, tourism planning, sustainable tourism