Title: The evolutionary game between tourist and resident populations and Tourist Carrying Capacity

Authors: Salvatore Bimonte, Lionello F. Punzo

Addresses: Department of Political Economy and Observatory for Sustainable Tourism, University of Siena, Piazza S. Francesco 7, 53100, Siena, Italy. ' Department of Political Economy and Observatory for Sustainable Tourism, University of Siena, Piazza S. Francesco 7, 53100, Siena, Italy

Abstract: Tourism implies the encounter and interaction of two non-homogeneous populations, possibly further internally structured into like-minded communities. Its sustainability, although still poorly defined, depends upon the type of such interaction and its evolution. This is why we believe that the theoretical representation of the problem has to occur within a game theory framework. This paper begins to investigate this uncharted, perhaps novel, idea. Moreover, building on existing literature, it discusses the impact of such an approach on one of the key concept that has been developed to assess the local impact of tourism, i.e. Tourism Carrying Capacity.

Keywords: sustainable tourism; game theory; communities interaction; tourists; resident populations; sustainability; tourism impact; sustainable development; tourism development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTG.2007.012361

International Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 2007 Vol.3 No.1, pp.73 - 87

Published online: 07 Feb 2007 *

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