Destination island effects: A theoretical framework for the environmental impact assessment of human tourism activities

• We present a theoretical framework for tourism environmental impact assessment.
• Destination island effects are prevalent throughout most of the crowded destinations.
• A definite correlation exists between DIEs and the total volume of tourist flows.
• The tree-ring method is a viable measurement of tourism environmental impacts.

This study aims to present a new theoretical and methodological framework for the continuous, precise, and quantitative reconstruction and evaluation of the environmental effects of human tourism activities. First, an original hypothesis, the destination island effects (DIEs) hypothesis, is proposed. The spatial and temporal characteristics of DIEs are determined according to their correlation with the actual arriving tourist flow. Furthermore, based on tree-ring analysis, we proposed a framework that includes instrumental techniques and key indicators for the environmental impact assessment of human tourism activities. Finally, we presented theoretical, methodological and empirical research directions for future studies. Our study offers an original hypothesis of DIEs for assessing the environmental effects of tourism, which is expected to be one of topics of significant interest in the future.