Ecotourism Carrying Capacity and the Potentiality of the Safari Park of Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was undertaken to assess the tourist's carrying capacity and to explore ecotourism potential of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, the only safari park of Bangladesh. Carrying capacity was assessed both from physical and social aspect. On the other hand, 250 visitors were interviewed with semi structured questionnaire for ecotourism prospect evaluation along with some secondary data. The total daily-allowed visit was 17,300 with rotation coefficient of 3.46. Maximum daily average numbers of tourists were relatively below the physical carrying capacity of the Park (5,000). The social carrying capacity was 4.38 persons per day. As there are different categories of visitors, their choice of encounters and number of expected encounters also varied. Each year, the total tourist's number varied significantly (p≤0.05). That proved the safari park had immense tourist prospect. 85 percent visitors were from lower and middle class family as entrance fees and other fees inside were very cheap in relation to other private amusement place. The ecological perspective of the park will remain unaltered if the carrying capacities of the area are followed with sustainability. Therefore, it is the proper time for taking appropriate decision.

Environment carrying capacity and willingness to pay for bird-watching ecotourism in Kerandangan Natural Park, Lombok, Indonesia

“…Study on different aspects of the environment carrying capacity in the implementation for ecotourism in National Parks and protected areas have been carried out by some researchers (Cifuentes 1992;Manning 2002;Clivaz et al 2004;Maldonado and Montagnini 2005;Sayan and Atik 2011;Lucyanti et al 2013;Masum et al 2013;Purwanto et al 2014;Sasmita et al 2014;Sadikin et al 2017;Vujko et al 2017;Lalrosanga et al 2019;Salemi et al 2019).…”

Analysis of the Suitability and Carrying Capacity of Marine and Coastal Tourism on Tunda Island, Banten Province

“…Carrying capacity is used to determine the capacity of a tourist area to accommodate visitors at one time which will provide comfort and keep the environment protected [28][29]. The concept of carrying capacity is categorized into three typologies, were : (1) physical carrying capacity, which is related to adequate accommodation; (2) ecological carrying capacity, is the maximum limit that does not result in a decrease in ecological function; (3) social carrying capacity, is the maximum limit of tourist activities which causes a decrease in tourist satisfaction with a destination tourist attraction [30]. Estimating of physical carrying capacity should be used as a starting point for assessing the carrying capacity of sustainable tourism.…”

“…The results of the analysis of carrying capacity on Tunda Island based on the beach recreation category, were 44,961 people/day in area 3.985.483 m² (2 person per 100 m 2 ) and for the snorkeling and diving category, the number was 3,881 people/day in area 970,197 m 2 (2 person per 100 m 2 ), while for marine ecotourism activities, the mangrove and seagrass tourism categories were not suitable for implementation on Tunda Island (Table 14). Concerns about exceeding the environment's carrying capacity will become increasingly vulnerable if tourism activities are developed on small islands where natural resources are limited and tourism operators will always meet the needs of tourists in running the tourism industry business [31] [30]. The environmental carrying capacity for marine tourism are divided into four types: physical carrying capacity, ecological carrying capacity, social carrying capacity, and economic carrying capacity..…”

Ecotourism as a Forest Conservation Tool: An NDVI Analysis of the Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Ecopark in Chattogram, Bangladesh

“…The principles of ecotourism are also disregarded due to the lack of encouragement of participation from locals and the lack of awareness of the concept of ecotourism [14,15,37]. In addition, a high visitor count, beyond the carrying capacity of the ecological area, is likely to hamper the sustainability of the resources [40]. The lack of economic benefits for locals and environmental degradation perceived by locals in some ecotourism spots are also likely to hinder initiatives from being successful [41,42].…”