Community involvement and sustainability of tourism: a discussion through local community understanding in the Eastern Black Sea Region

Abstract

Turkey is one of the developing countries which aims to increase its national share of tourism revenue. Therefore the Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism published its Turkey Tourism 2023 Strategy Action Plan in order to spotlight regional tourism development schemes. The Eastern Black Sea Region is one of the regions in which sustainable niche tourism activities is highlighted to be implemented. This study aims to understand “How far the local residents in the Eastern Black Sea Region embrace tourism activities taking place in their local environment?” In order to answer this question explicitly, the theoretical part must be set forth first in order to understand the connections between sustainable development and community involvement. Second, a perception study will be used to realize how the community evaluates tourism development in their region in respect to social, economic and environmental dimensions. Finally, the residents’ attitudes towards tourism development will be linked to their involvement in the tourism development process. A questionnaire was designed in light of the sustainability indicators, including Sustainable Tourism Attitude Scale (SUSTAS) indicators. 100 people were covered in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, frequencies of statements and correlations between statements were tested. Results show that; residents’ attitudes towards community participation positively associated with negative impacts of tourism development. Exemption of local residents from the tourism planning and decision making process indicates the ignorance of one of the main principles of sustainable tourism development.