Beaches are highly valuable tourist resources; therefore determining their carrying capacity is an essential factor for their sensible use and management. The study synthetically presented in this paper is focused on the SW coast of Portugal, during the summer of 1998 and 1999. It explores the concepts of physical carrying capacity (number of individuals a beach can physically accommodate) and social carrying capacity (concentration of individuals above which beach users become uncomfortable – crowding perception).Two distinct methods of data collection were used. Measurements on georeferenced digitised aerial photography were used for the physical carrying capacity evaluation. For the social carrying capacity, several user counts, video images and more than 200 interviews were conducted at five different beaches, exploring landscape perception, landscape evaluation and behaviour.The results achieved enable the understanding of fundamental differences between the two carrying capacity types and how to link and integrate them within management plans. The results also illustrate the difficulties in producing a universal carrying capacity formula, which can be applied in any beach indiscriminately. Nevertheless, the limitations encountered do not question the validity of these studies, as they are evidently of great importance for beach management and thus should be used in a flexible way, fully adapted to the existing specific site conditions.

Botero, C., Anfuso, A., Williams, A.T., Zielinski, S., Silva, C.P., Cervantes, O., Silva, L., Cabrera, J.A. 2013. Reasons for beach choice: European and Caribbean perspectives Beach users' preferences range greatly according to their cultural and educational heritage, national and local traditions, social status, sex, etc. Questionnaire surveys carried out on beach user preferences (50 beach aspects) in Wales, UK (n = 2,345); Hollywood beach, Florida, USA (n = 83), the Costa Dorada, Spain (n =157); Malta (n = 154) and Turkey's Aegean coast (n = 245) showed that five parameters were of the greatest importance on beach choice: safety, facilities, water quality, litter and scenery. Such kind of detailed surveys has never been carried out in Caribbean countries. Consequently, a great uncertainty exists regarding beach users' preferences. During Easter 2012, a total of 435 beach users along eight beaches of the Caribbean littoral of Colombia (Mayapo, Riohacha, Taganga, Rodadero, Puerto Colombia, Salga...

Botero, C., Pereira, C., Anfuso, A., Cervantes, O., Williams, A.T., Pranzini, E., Silva, C.P. 2014. Recreational parameters as an assessment tool for beach In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 556–562 ISSN 0749-0208. Beach quality can be understood according to uses established for this coastal system, the most common being tourism, fishing and conservation. This is especially true with regards to tourism, where quality is frequently measured with respect to two major areas: environmental and recreational. In 2002, an environmental quality index for tourist beaches was developed in Colombia, called ICAPTU (Índice de Calidad Ambiental en Playas Turísticas). ICAPTU had four indicators and eleven parameters, mainly focused in environmental aspects. In 2010, a research project started with the objective of updating ICAPTU with a more comprehensive scope, dividing envir...

Fonseca, C., Pereira da Silva, C., Calado, H., Moniz, F., Bragagnolo, C., Gil, A., Phillips, M., Pereira, M., Moreira, M., 2014. Coastal and marine protected areas as key elements for tourism in small islands. In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 461–466, ISSN 0749-0208. The Azores Archipelago (Portugal) is composed of 9 small islands located in the North Atlantic. To overcome the common challenges of this type of territory (e.g. isolation, closed systems, limited physical space and natural resources, endemism, small economies, small populations) and taking advantage of the natural and cultural heritage, the Regional Government of the Azores has based its Tourism Strategy on the high value of nature, landscape, flag species and outdoor experiences with a strong environmental friendly label. Pico Island offers the perfect scenario to enjoy such nature-based tourism ...

Data obtained through Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) have gradually been used to monitor and support planning mainly in urban contexts. Regarding recreational activities in peri-urban green and natural areas, VGI has been used to map, measure use intensity, profile users, and evaluate their preferences and motivations. Given their extensive use, it is now worthwhile to assess the value of VGI data to (1) compare recreational uses, profile users and map recreational activities in different contexts (metropolitan vs. rural areas), and (2) evaluate outdoor and adventure tourist products such as Grand Routes (GR). Data from former GPSies (AllTrails nowadays), one of the most popular web-share services, were used to assess recreational uses in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) and southwest Portugal (SWPT). A set of 22,031 tracks of “on foot” and “on wheels” activities, submitted by 3297 national and foreign users, covering 12 years, was analysed within a GIS modelling environment. Results indicate that, although there are many more submissions in the LMA, the influence of foreigners in the SWPT is higher (11% vs. 19%). The existing GR in SWPT concentrates the foreign use for hiking (71% of foreign vs. 28% of national users), demonstrating its attractiveness. For the favourite activity in both areas—Mountain biking—results show a higher spatial dispersion, yet part of the activity in SWPT still conforms to the GR (16% of foreign and 20% of national use). This study proves other applications for VGI, showing its usefulness for assessing recreational uses in both metropolitan and rural areas. Spatial knowledge about recreational uses is a valuable tool to evaluate and monitor such activities, and to know what users like to do, and where, and is also useful information when designing recreational products considering their tourist potential, thus adding value to these offers.