Sustainable destination development through sports tourism: Uşak province potential with regards to air sports

Tourism is expressed as an industry with many economic, social and cultural aspects. Especially in recent years it has been determined that the social and economic dimension has become the foreground and the international importance has been increasing gradually. One of the most important reasons for the importance of tourism's social and economic dimensions seems to be the sports events organized on a global scale. Tourism activities; economically, socio-cultural and environmental destinations in the positive or negative direction. Particularly, stakeholders directly affected / affected include central / local governments, non-governmental organizations, businesses, local residents and tourists. It is important to determine the expectations of these stakeholders in order to ensure the continuity and thus sustainability of the destinations. Determination of the expectations will contribute to the realization of sustainable tourism activities and marketing efforts correctly. When the diversity of tourism activities is evaluated, it is advantageous in destinations that cannot benefit from sea-sand-sun triple. Especially, tourism activities can be reduced to specific areas such as air sports tourism, so that many destinations have a share in tourism revenues and contribute to the economy of the country. Air sports related destinations are thought to have not acquired much space in the literature, and limited research on current scales is thought to lead to incomplete assessments in destination management and marketing efforts. In order to address this deficiency, it has become important to establish scales for stakeholders (local people, air sports tourists) and to be able to define views on the sustainability of destinations (air sports experts, central / local governments, non-governmental organizations, businesses). In this aim of research, the development of a scale that will enable the determination of the expectations of the local people and the air sports tourists in creating a sustainable destination through air sports tourism, air sports experts, local / central administrations, non-governmental organizations and enterprises make evaluations in the field, and to shed light on decision makers in marketing efforts. In this context, the study was designed based on qualitative and quantitative research methods. In the study, which is the population of air sports tourists, data set was created by using maximum diversity and snowball sampling strategies from 333 air sports tourists. There are 33 propositions in the data collection tool for collecting the data. The data were collected through an online survey application. In the study of the population of the Uşak destination, 527 local face-to-face interview techniques were obtained using a simple random sampling strategy. There are 38 propositions in the questionnaire which is used as data collection tool. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview form with maximum sampling strategy from air sports specialists, local / central government, non-governmental organizations and businesses. The data obtained from the obtained data and field data were analyzed by SWOT analysis for Uşak destination. The analysis of the data obtained in order to identify the predictions of the sustainable destiny of the air sports tourists and the local people was made through the SPSS and Lisrel analysis programs. It has been analyzed using descriptive and frequency analysis of data content analysis methods obtained from air sports specialists, local / central administrations, non-governmental organizations and enterprises. As a result of the study, scales have been developed that will enable local people to set expectations for economic, sociocultural and environmental destruction. Uşak destination has been found to have the natural beauty required for air sports tourism. A functional tourism management model was not found in Uşak destination. It has been seen that there is a need for a destination management model and strategic marketing plan to protect natural and cultural values and to make these values more functional in terms of tourism.