Urtasun Alonso, AinhoaGutiérrez Calderón, María Isabel2012-03-022012-03-022006Tourism Management, 2006, v. 27, nº 5, pp. 901-9120261-5177https://hdl.handle.net/10016/13637This paper measures two descriptors of tourism namely, its scale and agglomeration level and subsequently evaluates both descriptors according to their direct and joint impacts on the host communities' quality of life. The key constructs for this research are the following: (1) a tourism evaluation function that incorporates the scale and agglomeration of tourism, which is constructed for each one of the 50 Spanish provinces; and (2) a measure of the host communities' quality of life that comprises 12 objective partial indicators and an overall indicator that integrates them all. Results show the existence of carrying capacity frontiers or maximum thresholds that tourist destinations can sustain without damaging the economic, socio cultural, or environmental systems of the communities they belong.application/pdfeng©ElsevierCommunitiesSustainable tourismCarrying capacitySpainresearch articleEmpresa10.1016/j.tourman.2005.05.004open access9015912Tourism Management27