Exploring the perception on rural tourism of local people and farmers: The case of Izmir-Karaburun, Mordoğan

The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of local people and farmers on the rural tourism in İzmir-Karaburun, Mordoğan case. The main materials of the study were the data obtained from the survey which conducted with the local people and farmers who are living in Mordoğan district and the data obtained from the semi-structured interviews with the rural tourism stakeholders in the research was conclucted. In the study, a survey was conducted with 103 local people calculated by proportional sampling management and all farmers (65 farmers) in the research area registered to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry information system. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 rural tourism stakeholders to evaluate the development of the rural tourism potential of the region. In order to determine the perception of rural tourism of local people and farmers, the factor analysis was applied to the data. In addition, PESTEL analysis was conducted to evaluate the rural tourism potential of the region in terms of political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental dimensions. In order to investigate the perceptions of rural tourism, 61 proposals were presented to local people and farmers who were participated in the survey and their participation in each proposal was determined by using the Likert scale. As a result of the factor analysis, 42 propositions were excluded from the analysis and six dimensions revealed which can be measured with 19 propositions. These dimensions are named as economic, socio-cultural, environmental, interaction, awareness, and regional development dimensions. These dimensions were identified as the main factors for determining the rural tourism perceptions of local people and farmers. The value of Cronbach alpha for these 19 propositions was calculated to be as 0.840, and it was determined these 19 propositions explain 73.29% of the total variance. The economic dimension of rural tourism has been determined to be as the most important explanatory factor. The Mann Whitney U test has been conducted to determine whether there is a difference between local people and farmers in terms of rural tourism perceptions. The differences between the rural tourism perceptions of local people and farmers depending on the socio-economic variables such as gender, marital status, age, educational level, income level, number of households, number of children, duration of residence in the research area, and the status of the housing of the home and rural tourism perceptions of local people and farmers were found to be statistically significant. Depending on the result of the interviews with rural tourism stakeholders in the research area, stakeholder analysis was carried out. Stakeholder analysis revealed that the region has an important rural tourism potential, but does not get the attention that it deserves. For this reason, the further studies should be carried out to increase improvement of the rural tourism potential of the region. In this study, the effects of the present political, socio-cultural, economic, legal, technological and environmental factors the future of the rural tourism were analyzed by using PESTEL analysis. According to the results of the PESTEL analysis conducted in the study, it can be assumed that rural tourism; it can be assumed that as the public services in the region will be increased from the political point of view, it can be assumed that shopping of tourists in the region will affect the city trades positively the in economic dimension; it can be assumed the education level and conicious of socio-cultural aspects of local people and farmers in the rural tourism will be incereased, it can be assumed in terms of technology, it can be assumed it will provide access to more tourists through the Internet of rural tourism promotions for Mordoğan, it can be assumed it will reveal the problem of traffic in the rural area in terms of environment and legally, it can be assumed it has been revealed that the control and sanctions will increase in order not to spoil the historical and local texture in the region.