Option E • Section 4
Managing Tourism & Sport for the Future
Carrying capacity, sustainable tourism, future travel flows and widening participation in international sport.
Future possibilities for management of, and participation in, tourism and sport at varying scales
Unsustainable tourism and hotspot resilience
Visitor growth can exceed physical, environmental, social and perceptual capacity.
Carrying capacity is not one fixed number: it varies by season, infrastructure, visitor behaviour and resident tolerance. Management can ration access, alter prices, regulate accommodation, disperse visitors, improve transport and reinvest revenue—but may simply shift pressure elsewhere.
Enquiry 1 — Hotspot pressure audit
Compare Venice and Barcelona by visitor type, housing, congestion, public space, waste and resident attitudes. Rank caps, taxes, cruise restrictions, accommodation regulation and education, then explain which strategy most increases resilience.
Sustainable tourism and ecotourism
Economic benefits should endure, local communities should retain power and environmental change should remain acceptable.
Ecotourism should be nature-based, educational, low-impact, locally beneficial and linked to conservation. The label alone proves nothing: flights, luxury infrastructure, imported goods and external ownership can create hidden footprints and leakage.
Enquiry 2 — Ecotourism claim checker
Create criteria for conservation, carbon, water, waste, local employment, cultural respect and ownership. Apply them to one project and discuss: “Ecotourism is sustainable only when local communities control both decisions and benefits.” [10]
Factors influencing future international tourism
Social media, security, diaspora growth, climate and transport policy will redirect future demand and supply.
User-generated images can rapidly create hotspots; conflict, disease and perceived risk can abruptly reduce arrivals. Diaspora travel connects friends, relatives and ancestral homelands, while visa rules, income growth, aviation access and carbon policy reshape accessibility.
Enquiry 3 — Build three 2035 scenarios
Create optimistic, managed-growth and disrupted-tourism scenarios. Include demand, transport, security, climate, social media and capacity, then evaluate whether social media will shape future flows more strongly than security.
Political and cultural influences on participation
Governance, gender roles, disability inclusion, funding and technology shape access to international sport.
International bodies standardise rules, eligibility and anti-doping, while governments use sport to project identity and soft power. Women’s and Para sport have widened participation and visibility, but facilities, funding, equipment, leadership and media coverage remain geographically uneven.
Enquiry 4 — Participation and power
Build an inclusion dashboard using athletes, events, funding, leadership, media and grassroots access. Compare the influence of one international body, one government and one cultural norm, then discuss whether agreements or attitudes have widened participation more. [10]