DSE Geography | Tourism and Sustainable Tourism Lesson-Prep Guide (Tutor Edition) | Carrying Capacity, Leakage and Peak Loads

2026-11-02

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary Geography

Students can say that too many visitors overwhelm a place, but not how many is too many. This lesson turns carrying capacity and leakage into two sums, so sustainability becomes a markable answer.

Objectives — Students can: (1) compute how far visitor numbers exceed carrying capacity and distinguish ecological, facility and perceptual capacity; (2) compute economic leakage and local retention from visitor spending and apply a multiplier; (3) compare peak pricing, booking caps, zoning and community control, and use a peak day 77.8% over capacity to explain why building more hotels does not solve the problem.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Carrying capacity	How many visitors a place can take in a year without damage	There is a limit, and different limits from different angles
Percentages	How far above 150,000 is 200,000	50,000 above, which is 33.3%
Multiplier	How much extra local income one tourist dollar creates	Depends on local retention and respending

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-10 min	An island dilemma	Visitors bring money and also water, waste and crowding	List three costs and three benefits
10-22 min	Carrying capacity	Ecological, facility and perceptual limits	Compute 33.3% over capacity
22-34 min	Economic leakage	Flights, imported food, foreign-owned hotels	Compute 175 million retained
34-44 min	The multiplier	Local retention times the multiplier	Compute 315 million
44-54 min	Managing peaks	Fees, booking caps, zoning, community control	Explain 888.9 visitors a day
54-60 min	Exit check	Three questions marked on the spot	All three right

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Carrying capacity is a division, not a feeling

An island receives 200,000 visitors a year and its assessed capacity is 150,000. The overshoot is (200 – 150) / 150 = 33.3%.
Keep three capacities apart: ecological capacity covers coral, beaches and water supply under trampling and extraction; facility capacity covers roads, sewage plants and beds; perceptual capacity covers when residents and visitors feel crowded. The numbers differ, and planning takes the lowest.
The key idea is that concentration, not the annual total, does the damage. An annual average of 548 a day looks comfortable, but 40% of visitors arrive in three months: 200,000 x 0.4 / 90 = 888.9 a day, which exceeds a peak-day capacity of 500 by 77.8%.
So the same annual total can burst in high season and empty in low season. Write that the total is within capacity while the peak is not, and the answer scores above the word crowded.

Ask students: if the annual total is within capacity, why is the beach still worn out (peaks leave no recovery time).

Scene 2: Tourist money does not all stay on the island

Each visitor spends 2,500 dollars, so 200,000 visitors generate 500 million.
Flights, fuel, imported food, foreign-owned hotel profits and management fees leave the island: that is economic leakage. At a leakage rate of 65%, local retention is 500 million x 0.35 = 175 million.
Apply a local multiplier of 1.8 (guides, drivers and farmers respend locally) and the community receives 315 million.
Compare two models: an all-inclusive resort has high leakage and mostly low-skill jobs; community guesthouses and local guiding have lower leakage but need training and regulation.
In answers, write income in three steps: total spend, minus leakage, times the multiplier, and state each assumption.

Ask students: with the same 500 million of spending, why do the resort and the guesthouse model differ so much (leakage and respending).

Scene 3: Sustainability changes the distribution, not the number

Four tools each carry a cost: fees (arrival or bed tax) suppress low-spend visitors but hit livelihoods; booking caps control the peak directly but need enforcement; zoning (limits in a core area, diversion elsewhere) needs transport; community control is slowest but most durable.
Water is a hard indicator: at 0.3 cubic metres per visitor per day over a 3-day stay, 200,000 visitors use 180,000 cubic metres a year, the equivalent of several thousand households, on an island with limited supply.
So define sustainable tourism as maximising retained local income while keeping peaks inside carrying capacity, without damaging resources for the next generation.
Keep the judgement balanced: stopping tourism removes residents income, and unlimited growth destroys the resource; the answer is a policy mix in between.

Ask students: which hurts residents less, a fee or a booking cap, using one specific group as the example.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Calculation	Overshoot of carrying capacity	(visitors – capacity) / capacity x 100%	33.3%
Calculation	Leakage and local retention	Total spend x (1 – leakage rate)	175 million
Calculation	Income after the multiplier	Local retention x multiplier	315 million
Evaluation	Choosing among management tools	Effect, cost, fairness and feasibility, each with evidence	Balanced conclusion

Sanity check (teach this): Capacity is the limit, so the denominator of the overshoot is capacity, not visitor numbers.
Leakage and retention sum to 1, and retention above total spend is an error.
The multiplier applies to retained income only, never to total spend.
Compute the annual total and the peak day separately, using high-season days as the denominator.
Convert water units: 0.3 cubic metres is 300 litres, not 300 cubic metres.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Overshoot of 200,000 visitors against 150,000 capacity	33.3%	(200 – 150) / 150
Local retention from 500 million at 65% leakage	175 million	500 million x 0.35
Community income from 175 million times 1.8	315 million	175 million x 1.8

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Using visitor numbers as the denominator	Answering that the overshoot is 25%	The denominator is the 150,000 capacity, so (200 – 150) / 150 is 33.3%.
Applying the multiplier to total spend	Answering 500 million x 1.8 = 900 million	Deduct leakage first; the multiplier acts on the 175 million retained.
Equating sustainability with a ban	Answering that no visitors should come	It means managing volume and timing, not zero; residents need income.
Ignoring seasonality	Answering that 548 a day is under the limit	Look at the peak: 888.9 a day is 77.8% over.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary geography chapter index — All chapters and practice
Secondary lesson-prep overview — Compare other subjects

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Overshoot of 200,000 against 150,000	33.3%	All three right means move to leakage
Local retention figure	175 million	One wrong means redo leakage
Peak-day overshoot	77.8%	Two wrong means repeat act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Must students memorise real island figures?

No. They must compute the overshoot from given figures and name the three capacities.

Is the leakage rate always 65%?

No, it is a case assumption. Answers should state it and say when leakage would be higher.

How does sustainable tourism differ from ecotourism?

Ecotourism is a product type; sustainable tourism is a development principle covering economic and social dimensions.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.