Determining Tourism Carrying Capacity of Inani Beach, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Author: Md Saiful Islam, Marzia Khandaker Momo, Md Kamrul Hassan
DOI: doi.org/10.70279/bmj-v7-i1-1047

Tourism carrying capacity (TCC) is often discussed, calculated and implemented in popular tourist destinations as every destination has a capacity to accommodate tourists, beyond which it cannot serve. Therefore, for a given destination, the number of tourists must be kept at an optimum level in order to preserve the natural and/or manmade attractions. Inani Beach is a popular sea beach in Cox’s Bazar receiving thousands of tourists every year. This beach is famous not only for its natural boulders and sandy beach, but also for being home for endangered red crabs. However, the TCC of Inani Beach is not yet calculated and therefore the natural beauty and the colony of red crabs are under threat due to overtourism. This study assesses the TCC of Inani Beach employing the Cifuentes method with some modifications. Findings show that the TCC of Inani Beach is a total of 2,883 tourists per day divided into two sessions (3 hours per session of the 6 hours during the high tide in daylight), so the maximum number of tourists in each session is 1441. The study contributes to TCC literature in the context of Bangladesh and also will assist the government and private sector to improve strategy and policymaking