Responsible tourist behavior in the context of sustainable community-based tourism experiences: A model proposal in the scope of grounded theory

The aim of this research is to propose a theoretical model that explains the sustainable community-based tourism experience, based on the evaluation of the factors that shape responsible tourist behavior in the context of sustainable community-based tourism experience elements and the sustainability dimensions of community-based tourism. Qualitative research method was adopted in this study, which started with the problem sentence of how the experiences gained in community-based tourism destinations that follow the sustainability approach in shaping the tourists' awareness of responsibility in terms of environmental, social and economic aspects of that region. Sustainable community-based tourism destinations represent the population of this research. The sample of the study consists of tourists who visited the Ovacık village of Şile district of Istanbul within the scope of the "A Day in Ovacık Village" project and were reached by using criterion sampling and snowball sampling techniques of the purposeful sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were held between 01 May and 2 June 2021 with a total of 30 participants within the scope of the research. The data analysis of the study, which was based on grounded theory, was made using the NVivo 10 package program. In the study based on the model of Corbin and Strauss (1990), the main themes were determined through the research data, which was evaluated in detail and systematically in three stages as open, axial, and selective coding. In this study, interpretative grounded theory design was used. From the coding category on which the research model is based, Glaser's (1978) "6C Coding Family" was used and the research data were categorized by considering the "conditions, causes, consequences, context, contingencies, and covariances". In the model, that was obtained as a result of the research, "motivational factors related to community-based tourism" correspond to the causal conditions affecting the phenomenon, the concept of "experience" corresponds to the phenomenon which is the subject of the research, and "participation in the experience" corresponds to the context that explains the participation of the participants in the activities at the destination. "Sustainable community-based tourism experience elements" represent the intermediary conditions that support the phenomenon of tourist experience, and "sustainability dimensions of community-based tourism" represent the action strategies carried out in the destination. In the result part of the model, experience has been related to "satisfaction, behavioral intention and responsible tourist behavior". Relying on the research results, some suggestions were made towards the practitioners and the researchers.