In their paper on environmental carrying capacity, Brown et al. (1997) describe some of the negative
impacts of tourism development and propose the carrying capacity framework for addressing
these impacts. Though we agree that these impacts should be addressed, we feel that the carrying
capacity approach is inadequate for the task in most situations. An examination of the steps that
are necessary for establishing a carrying capacity illustrates why this is the case (further discussion
is provided in Lindberg et al. 1997).