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Cited by 32Diverse Aspects of Tourism ResearchCruise Tourism Development and ManagementUrbanism, Landscape, and Tourism Studies

Assessment of the Overtourism Phenomenon Risk in Tunisia in Relation to the Tourism Area Life Cycle Concept

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Widz, Monika, Brzezińska-Wójcik, Teresa·2020·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su12052004
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Abstract

Tunisia is a destination where organised mass tourism has prevailed since 1985. This trend is still being observed, despite the unstable geopolitical situation in North Africa. Current reports from booking portals indicate that this country will be one of the most popular tourist destinations in 2020. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the prospects for sustainable development in Tunisia in 2020–2025 as means to prevent the negative effects of overtourism. The research was conducted in three stages: (1) analysis of the phases of tourism development in Tunisia from 1960 to 2019 in relation to the Tourism Area Life Cycle concept, (2) identification of the destination’s evolution in 2015–2019 with the method of trend function exploration, and (3) an attempt to assess the risk of overtourism in Tunisia in light of Tourism Carrying Capacity on the basis of the Tourism Intensity Index and Tourism Density index. The study results revealed three phases of development in Tunisia, i.e. exploration, involvement, and development. The verification of the trend function indicated that Tunisia would enter the consolidation phase in 2020. The highest risk of overtourism is estimated for three governorates—Tunis, Sousse, and Monastir.

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  • Without a destination management policy, the next stage after stagnation and consolidation is decline.

    “TALC is used in overtourism in connection with the destination stages of stagnation and consolidation, which also shows that without a destination management policy, the next stage is decline; this model is used in Dodds and Butler [6], Widz and Brzezi ńska-Wójcik [19], Abbasian et al. [20], Zmyślony et al. [21], Kim et al. [22].”

    From Agent-Based Model Applied for the Study of Overtourism in an Urban Context (2025) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Discussion (section 4; page unavailable) says consolidation and stagnation precede decline, and the Methods (section 2; page unavailable) identifies decline or rejuvenation as later TALC phases. The Conclusions (section 5; page unavailable) recommends management measures to prevent overtourism, but the paper does not say that lacking a destination management policy makes decline the next stage. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Research works printed but not linked: 37

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Widz, M., & Brzezińska-Wójcik, T.
Affiliations
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (PL)
Corresponding author
Widz, Monika
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2020-03-05
Volume
12
Issue
5
Pages
2004
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su12052004
OpenAlex
W3010359984
Cited by
32
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5
FWCI
5.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research
  • Social Sciences › Transportation › Cruise Tourism Development and Management
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Urbanism, Landscape, and Tourism Studies
Keywords
overtourism, tourism area life cycle, tourism carrying capacity, sustainable tourism development, mass tourism, destination evolution, Tunisia

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