Civil initiatives in rural tourism marketing: Village women entrepreneurship cooperative with Kuyucak lavender odor

The main purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the rapidly developing rural tourism in Kuyucak, a village of Keçiborlu, Isparta, based on lavender in terms of marketing and civil initiatives. Defining the role of the Lavender Scented Village Women Entrepreneurs Cooperative of Kuyucak, as an example of a civil initiative, in lavender-based tourism marketing, and evaluating opinions and awareness levels of the people towards rural activities' development in terms of participation are the other objectives of the study. In order to achieve the specified objectives, evaluations were made on the basis of interviews with with the members of the cooperative and other people living in the village and observations. The total number of the people interviewed was 83 while the total population of the village was 256 in 2018 when the study started. Fifty of these people were from the cooperative's members out of the total 60. The data gathered in the field study were analysed through descriptive statistics and logistic regression. A Likert scale, which was formed based on the results obtained was presented to 12 experts who work related to lavender in the field of research and practise. According to the results, an important development movement through a combination of personal leadership, public support and encouraging civil initiatives is experienced based on lavender rural tourism activities in Kuyucak village where lavender production has been carried out for years. An important role in the realization of this movement is that the effects of new marketing tools developed thanks to advance technologies in promotion and its economic returns have made people adopt it rapidly. While the cooperative is at the centre of these developments, the satisfaction level of the villagers with the cooperative is moderate. Particularly, reservations regarding a lack of a transparent working environment and not considering local needs in grassroots-based indicate governance problems. It is observed that while the width of lavender field increases, the tendency to become a member of the cooperative increases, too. The level of satisfaction with the cooperative was lower among young partners. This is why it is thought that it is necessary to consider young people's wishes and encourage them accordingly in order to achieve a sustainable rural tourism based on lavender.