Sustainable destination management and carrying capacity: A study on Edirne

Destinations that want to get more share from the ever-increasing tourism movements face some problems in the organisation phase. Lack of coordination among tourism stakeholders, differences in the duties and authorities of institutions and organisations, insufficient financial resources and carrying capacity problems are among these problems. These problems can be solved by making destination management organisations effective and adopting sustainable tourism. Edirne is one of the important touristic destinations of Turkey with its historical and cultural richness, natural beauties and gastronomy. However, the increase in the number of tourists in the last fifteen years and the problems caused by this increase show the lack of coordination between stakeholders and the lack of a planned tourism development in the city. This research aims to determine whether there is a need for a destination management organisation to be formed by the tourism stakeholders of the city in line with the views of tourism stakeholders in Edirne province, whether there is a social carrying capacity problem due to the development of tourism in the city and what needs to be done for a sustainable tourism development. In order to get in-depth answers to the research questions formed in line with the purpose of the research, qualitative research method was preferred and phenomenological research design was used. Semi-structured interview technique was used as data collection method. 36 tourism stakeholders were interviewed and content analysis was applied to the data obtained from the interviews. The research revealed that there is a lack of coordination among tourism stakeholders in Edirne, there is a need for a destination management organisation to manage the destination, carrying capacity is not planned and sustainable tourism principles are not adopted. For sustainable tourism development and destination management in Edirne, it was determined that plans should be created within the framework of sustainability, the organisation should include all stakeholders and the dialogue between stakeholders should be strengthened.