The effect of sustainability on local tourists' perception of ecotourism: The case of Mardi̇n as a cultural tourism destination

Tourism has become an important sector in the world economy, allowing countries to invest in their economies, create job opportunities and increase trade between countries. In addition, tourism helps countries to promote and protect their cultural and natural assets. With the development of this sector, some economic, socio-cultural and environmental negative effects may occur. It can be thought that the people who have the most impact on the positive and negative effects of tourism are the tourists who visit there. In such a case, measuring the perceptions of tourists visiting a region for tourism activities has become an important and valuable issue. Although there are academic studies discussing various sustainability indicators prepared by international organizations for sustainable tourism development of destinations, most of these studies focus on the supply side, ignoring the visitors' perspective. Therefore, since getting the support of visitors is essential for the success of sustainability initiatives in destinations, there is a need to understand how these individuals perceive different aspects of sustainability. In this context, the province of Mardin, which is an important place in terms of tourism, where different religious beliefs live together with its cultural and historical riches, has also become an important research topic in terms of tourism. In this study, to examine the relationship between sustainability and ecotourism; It is aimed to reveal the perceptions of local tourists about sustainability and ecotourism and to reveal the effect of sustainability on ecotourism. As a result of the analyzes made in the research, it has been determined that there is a positive linear high level correlation between the dimensions of sustainability and ecotourism. In addition, it has been observed that the dimensions of sustainability have a significant effect on the dimensions of ecotourism. When the difference analyzes regarding the average of perceptions of local tourists regarding sustainability and ecotourism are examined, it is seen that they participate more positively. Keywords: Sustainability, Ecotourism, Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Cultural Tourism, Mardin.