A scale development study on sustainable tourism in cittaslows

As of August 2020 the number of Cittaslows in the world has reached 266. These cities on 18 of them are located in Turkey. And the total number is increasing every year. Considering this growth, it is important to reveal the effects of the Cittaslow Movement in terms of sustainable tourism. In this thesis work, it is aimed to develop a scale in order to measure the environmental, social and economic impacts of the Cittaslow Movement, which is a kind of social innovation implemented by social entrepreneurs, reflected on the people living in these cities. In addition, it is aimed to contribute to the controversial issues in the literature such as the relationship between social entrepreneurship and social innovation, the characteristics and motivations of social entrepreneurs, differences from traditional entrepreneurs and profit expectations, which form the conceptual framework of the thesis. In this direction, the exploratory sequential design, one of the mixed method approaches, where qualitative and quantitative research processes are respectively carried out together, was used. Accordingly, in the qualitative phase of the research, in-depth interviews were made with 8 participants using a semi-structured interview form and content analysis was applied to the data obtained. Data were collected from 9 different Cittaslow by a questionnaire form based on the codes obtained as a result of qualitative data analysis. The data obtained were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. At the end of the study, a scale consisting of 40 statements and 8 factors was developed by providing validity and reliability.