Pamukkale from the perspective of tourist guides overtourism at the destination

Overtourism refers to the excessive crowding that occurs in a specific tourist destination due to seasonal and periodic congestion, leading to permanent negative changes in the local population's lifestyle and access to resources. As a result of uncontrolled growth trends in tourism activity, overtourism creates profound impacts in physical, environmental, social, economic, cultural, and political terms. In order to implement sustainable tourism activities and develop tourist destinations, all these negative impacts must be minimised and regional resources must be managed efficiently. Pamukkale is one of Turkey's two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the mixed category and is a designated Special Environmental Protection Area, attracting millions of tourists every year. The aim of this research is to develop perceptions, attitudes, conservation strategies and solution proposals regarding overtourism from the perspective of tourist guides in the Pamukkale destination, based on the concept of overtourism. The data for this qualitative research study were collected from 15 tourist guides working in Pamukkale using a semi-structured interview technique. In this context, an interview form containing 15 open-ended questions was used as the data collection technique. The transcribed interviews were converted into written documents using Microsoft Office Word. After transcribing the data, it was interpreted within categories using classical content analysis. The research found that there is a problem of seasonal overtourism at the Pamukkale destination and that the participants did not find the ongoing efforts sufficient. The research also found that when evaluating the positive and negative effects of overtourism at the Pamukkale destination, the participants generally listed the negative effects more frequently. In conclusion, the interviewees clearly highlighted the visibility of the damage caused by exceeding the carrying capacity of the Pamukkale destination, the fact that a destination management model has not yet been established, and proposed solutions to these problems.