Governance-Mediated Carrying Capacity in a Living Heritage City: Corfu

Historic urban destinations must sustain tourism’s economic and cultural benefits while protecting the buildings, social practices and everyday functions that make heritage a lived environment. This study examines how stakeholders understand tourism pressure in the UNESCO-listed Old Town of Corfu, Greece, and the role they attribute to governance in managing it. Eleven semi-structured interviews with purposively selected institutional, professional and community representatives were analysed thematically and considered alongside official statistics, sectoral data and documentary evidence. Participants described pressure as unevenly distributed across places, seasons and hours. Their accounts linked concentrated visitor flows with infrastructure constraints, housing change, cruise scheduling and fragmented responsibilities, while differing over the relative importance of growth and its costs. The analysis develops a case-based interpretation of governance-mediated carrying capacity: how stakeholders connect the management of tourism pressure with coordination, information sharing, urban services and residential continuity. It does not calculate a numerical visitor threshold or establish the causal effects of governance. The findings indicate practical priorities for visitor-flow management, housing assessment, seasonal services and heritage protection. These proposals require local feasibility assessment and evaluation, with the aim of sustaining tourism’s contribution while protecting the Old Town as a place to live.