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360 limit of acceptable change
References
Gottlieb, A. �1982) Àmericans' Vacations', Annals of
Tourism Research 9: 165±87.
Turner, V. �1969) The Ritual Process, Chicago:
Aldine.
Wagner, U. �1977) `Out of time and place: mass
tourism and charter trips', Ethnos 42�1/2): 38±52.
Further reading
Cohen, E. �1985) `Tourism as play', Religion 15:
291±304.
ERIK COHEN, ISRAEL
limit of acceptable change
As part of the early debate on the ability of
ecosystems to sustain damage, the term `limits of
acceptable change' was coined to describe the level
of allowable variations in the quality of the
environment before irreversible degradation is
likely to occur. Discussion and research on this
concept has shifted to determining the carrying
capacity of ecosystems and, in order to achieve
this, the most appropriate indicators of environmental
change. Indicators of this change are
physical, chemical, biological or socioeconomic
measures that can be used to assess natural
resources and environmental quality, and reduce
the number of measures that are normally required
to represent a given situation to the community.
A key question that has yet to be resolved is
whether or not it is possible to develop a core set of
environmental indicators that could be used by all
communities. Since they are shaped by community-driven
sustainability goals which themselves
are influenced by local environmental, economic
and social conditions, there has been considerable
debate as to the preferred set.
Furthermore, the biophysical dimensions of
carrying capacity are not immutable, but are
subject to variations brought on by technological
change, greater efficiency in consumption, recycling
of resources, or increasing substitutability of
non-renewable resources by renewable ones. Indeed,
although the carrying capacity approach has
a certain validity for defining the limits of
acceptable ecological change at a regional scale,
it is of little help in the context of the intra-urban
built environment. Environmental management
rather than development control is of much
greater importance in that context.
The Commission for Sustainable Development
is the United Nations body charged with developing
sustainability indicators on a worldwide basis,
and is working closely with the World Tourism
Organization to develop such indicators for the
tourism industry. These will be based on international
discussions on the limits of acceptable
change to local environments from the development
of tourism, and used by governments and
communities to regulate and manage the industry
in the future.
See also: biological diversity; benchmarking;
codes of ethics, environmental; ecologically
sustainable tourism; environmental auditing
Further reading
American Planning Association �1996) special issue
on Monitoring Change, Journal of the American
Planning Association 62�2).
literary tourism
MALCOLM COOPER, AUSTRALIA
Literary tourism is a form of tourism in which the
primary motivation for visiting specific locations
is related to an interest in literature. This may
include visiting past and present homes of authors
�living and dead), real and mythical places
described in literature, and locations affiliated with
characters and events in literature. Regions
strongly associated with an author may be marketed
in that vein, such as `Shakespeare Country'.
local
RICHARD BUTLER, UK
`Local' is a term which refers to both a scale of
analysis and the characteristics which are associated
with a particular neighbourhood, commu-