Rural tourism and its stakeholders: A research on the attitudes of the mayors

Rural tourism, which is directly related to natural life, farm life, agricultural industry and outdoor activities, requires control at the local level owing to its small scale structure. In rural tourism local administrators? efforts and supports are essential for protecting natural, historical and cultural attractions, adaptating tourism to local cultural characteristics and standardizing transportation, accomodation and catering services.This study aims to support localization process of tourism related public services, develop scientific point of views regarding services designed to be localized and contribute to the efforts towards diversifying tourism in Turkey and spreading tourism activities throughout the entire year at the local administrative level. In accordance with this purpose, a questionnaire was conducted with 460 mayors of 28 cities which are shown as development priority regions. Within the context of ?Tourism Attitude Survey for Rural Mayors?, which was developed within the light of a literature review and expert opinion, there are 11 questions on positive cognitive attitudes towards tourism, 8 questions on emotional attitudes, 6 questions on creating social awareness in rural tourism, 10 questions on developing organizational structure, 7 questions on preference of organizational stakeholder, 9 questions on product development, 7 questions on product marketing and 6 questions on determining reasons hindering municipalities from participating in rural tourism. The scale was applied to the sample group within the period between January and August 2012. In analyzing the data ?percentage?, ?frequency?, ?t-test for independent samples?, ?single factor variance analysis?, ?Tukey (HSD) test?, ?correlation?, ?simple regression analysis? and ?multiple regression analysis? were used.The findings of this research have shown that attitudes of mayors towards tourism vary according to demographical characteristics (their education, political parties they belong to, education in the tourism field, participation in tourism-related seminars and conferences, travelling for the purpose of tourism, work experience in the tourism field) and general characteristics of municipalities (the type of municipality, the region it is located in, having a city council, a tourism working group, a sustainable tourism action plan or a department where tourism-related works are conducted). From the result of the correlation analysis it was figured out that there is a medium level relationship (r=0,61) between the attitudes of the mayors towards tourism (cognitive, emotional) and lower dimensions of rural tourism (creating social awareness, developing organizational structure, product development, product marketing). Results of the regression analysis have also shown that attitudes of the mayors towards tourism (except from cognitive attitudes and product development) have positive impacts on the lower dimensions of rural tourism in terms of creating social awareness, developing organizational structure and product marketing. Based on the research findings, a model for increasing the level of rural mayors? attitudes towards tourism and suggestions related to the subject were also presented.Keywords: Countryside, rural development, rural tourism, stakeholder analysis, mayors, attitude.