The goal of this study was to investigate the social carrying capacity (SCC) of
Kawdulla National Park (KNP) in terms of vehicle crowding. Crowding was
considered as the social norm to estimate the standards for SCC. The normative theory
approach was applied in this study and a social norm curve was prepared. Based on the
hypothesis visitor acceptability or tolerance influenced by vehicle crowding, images
with different number of vehicles were generated. The crowding standard for SCC
was estimated as 9 vehicles within 25 m radius by asking each respondent whether
the presented scenarios were acceptable or not. Statistically, it was proven that socio
economic status of visitors mainly affect on the acceptability of vehicle crowding.
The average visitor acceptability for enjoying elephant watching has decreased with
the increasing number of vehicles (crowding). Therefore the results of the present
study could be applied in decision making to diversify the tourism activities in order
to maintain the visitor satisfaction on enjoying elephant watching
The goal of this study was to investigate the social carrying capacity (SCC) of
Kawdulla National Park (KNP) in terms of vehicle crowding. Crowding was
considered as the social norm to estimate the standards for SCC. The normative theory
approach was applied in this study and a social norm curve was prepared. Based on the
hypothesis visitor acceptability or tolerance influenced by vehicle crowding, images
with different number of vehicles were generated. The crowding standard for SCC
was estimated as 9 vehicles within 25 m radius by asking each respondent whether
the presented scenarios were acceptable or not. Statistically, it was proven that socio
economic status of visitors mainly affect on the acceptability of vehicle crowding.
The average visitor acceptability for enjoying elephant watching has decreased with
the increasing number of vehicles (crowding). Therefore the results of the present
study could be applied in decision making to diversify the tourism activities in order
to maintain the visitor satisfaction on enjoying elephant watching
