Sustainable tourism projects in Turkey

Guzeloglu, Ferdi Tayfur; Gulc, Aleksandra

Sustainable tourism projects in Turkey

Abstract

With the increase in income, many people have started to enjoy their free time by travelling around the world. The globalization has led to an increase in tourism traffic, so about 1.5 billion tourists travelled around the world in 2019, while Turkey hosted 52.5 million tourists. The intensity of the pace of work has caused people to look for and go to places where they can relax and to take the edge off. The development of tourism destroyed its elements and resources. Tourism started to develop in Turkey in the 1980s and recently it has reached a saturation level bringing negative consequences. To avoid these damages, the concepts of sustainable development and tourism emerged after the 1980s. This concept has been adapted to tourism to ensure the future generations benefit by minimizing the loss of used resources. The importance of planning was revealed during the study. Turkey wants to be among the top five most touristed countries in the world in 2023 with tourism projects. Tourism planning considers a regional, local, and national scale. According to the concept of sustainability, regional development should be planned. In this study, sustainable tour-ism projects supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Anadolu Ephesus, and the United Nations – 'Future in Tourism' platform in 2007 –– were examined. The article includes the following sections: sustainable tourism literature review, sustainable tourism projects in Turkey, discussion and conclusion.