A study on attituade and perceptions of the local people in Trabzon towards ecotourism

By increasing the pressure on nature, tourism activities cause numerous ecological problems such as atmospheric pollution, exceeding the carrying capacity in the region, damage to wildlife populations and endemic plant species, water resources becoming unsafe, and throwing of garbage in a way that can damage natural and living spaces. Since these negative impacts on the environment create an obligation to adopt a responsible form of tourism, ecotourism, a nature-based alternative tourism idea, has emerged. Ecotourism, which is one of the cornerstones of the sustainability of natural resources in the tourism sector, supports the relationship between natural areas, local people, and tourism, and thus it is a concept that can help to ensure natural and cultural values are used without damage and to strike the balance between conservation and development. Trabzon province in the Eastern Black Sea Region, which has been determined as the study area, offers important opportunities in terms of ecotourism because of including both coastal and mountainous sections, having different vegetation cover, soil structure, clean ground and surface waters, the richness of medicinal and aromatic plants in its flora, and having both polar and tropical air masses. The aim of this study, which focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of the local people in Trabzon province towards ecotourism to determine the awareness of ecotourism by the local people and to measure the attitude of these people. The data regarding the research will be obtained by the survey method and the population of the study is the people of Trabzon. As a result of the study, it is observed that the local people living in Trabzon have a positive attitude towards the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental development of ecotourism.