Resumo

ZACARIAS, Daniel Augusta. Tourism carrying capacity assessment for beach management in Mozambique: the case of Praia do Tofo. RGCI [online]. 2013, vol.13, n.2, pp.205-214. ISSN 1646-8872.

Coastal zones are important areas for recreational activities and are determinants of extensive tourist flows all over the World. Unfortunately these flows are a source of negative impacts in recreational settings resulting in beach overcrowding, beach erosion and degradation of coastal ecosystems. As such, beaches are being transformed into places of human congestion that results in degradation of local ecosystems and reduction of the capacity of the surrounding communities to absorb the impacts of tourism, thus requiring the introduction of more appropriate management practices directed to resources management. As coastal ecosystems have considerable impact on well-being, their sustainable management is also important. As such, ensuring human and ecosystem well-being in beaches is an important matter, especially considering that the amount of people living or using the coast is increasing year after year. With a heavy presence of humans in coastal recreational settings, the complexity of these habitats is affected and the management of visitors needs to be carefully planned in order to achieve the objectives of conservation and resource management and to ensure that tourists reach a positive experience and meet their expectations about the destination. Considering the sensitivity of coastal recreational settings, determining the appropriate number of people which can be supported at each individual beach is considered a primary task. This paper is an attempt to respond to this issue by presenting the results of a tourism carrying capacity study developed at Praia do Tofo (southern Mozambique) by means of applying a combination of the Framework for Carrying Capacity Assessment as the guiding tool and several indicators for each category of carrying capacity (physical, real and effective carrying capacity). The field work was conducted at Praia do Tofo Beach in southern Mozambique from August 08th to September 15th 2010, involving measurement of the available area for leisure, tourists counts, direct interviews to tourists and evaluation of the infrastructural quality that support recreational activities. Based on two scenarios of beach utilization for tourists/ recreationists (5m² and 10m² per user), results indicate that the physical carrying capacity (considering as indicators the amount of land in m² available for leisure, beach utilization and the rotation factor) limits the number of tourists/ recreationists to 57298 and 28649 visits/day (scenario 1 and 2 respectively) and the real carrying capacity (based on the real carrying capacity and correction factors - rainy and windy days, period of the year without sunshine and visual water quality) restrained beach utilization to 1,414 and 706 tourists/recreationists per day. Considering these parameters and the indicators of the management capacity (beach sanitation, parking facilities, beach accessibility, lifesaving facilities and the presence of domestic animals at the beach), the effective carrying capacity indicates that this beach can support a range of 896 and 447 tourists/recreationists a day (scenario 1 and 2 respectively) without distorting the prevailing natural and ecological conditions.

Palavras-chave : tourism; carrying capacity; beach management; Tofo beach.

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