The development and effects of tourism in Uzungöl in terms of sustainable tourism

While tourism becomes the sector which provides especially economic benefits in the area where it develops, it can also bring environmental and social costs as a result of mismanagement. Negative effects caused by tourism in the long term aggravate managing the destinations in developing countries where economic growth model is highly preferred. Nevertheles, research has been done for defining and managing the negative effects and the solutions have been searched for. In the field of study which is Uzungöl, however, research related to the effects and development of tourism has been rather limited, and the subject has not been referred adequately. In this context, the purpose of this study is to develop strategies and suggestions for sustainable tourism development of the area and the destination by defining the effects and the development of tourism in Uzungöl. Qualitive and quantitive research methods have been held together in parallel with this purpose and a holistic perspective related to the development and effects of tourism has been tried to been captured. Documents concerning the tourism development process of Uzungöl have been gathered in order to reveal the subject, a questionnaire of tourism effects has been conducted to the local people of Uzungöl, and interviews regarding the tourism effects and sustainable tourism management concept have been had with the area stakeholders. As a result of the analysis of qualitative data, Uzungöl destination has been occurred to move from stop to fall at the tourism development standards. Moreover, while it has been observed that stakeholders in Uzungöl mostly mention the negative environmental effects of tourism, and it has been determined that they have a negative opinion towards sustainable tourism management concept and that the area is managed far from this concept. As a result of the analysis of quantitive data, though, it has been seen that because of the fact that the local people in Uzungöl are dependent highly on tourism, they perceive the economic effects of tourism mostly. Depending on the results attained from the researches, strategies have been presented to the stakeholders in order to increase the development of sustainable tourism concept in Uzungöl and for stakeholders to carry out the correct roles in terms of sustainable management of the area; and various suggestions have been given to the local people