Residents' happiness and their support for tourism development based on tourism intensity: Overtourism and undertourism practices

The increase in leisure time and income of people around the world, along with the ease of international mobility, has allowed more people to travel day by day. Destinations continue to expand their tourism supply in order to increase their share of this increasing mobility and want to gain more economic benefits. However, the increasing number of visitors, especially in popular destinations that are frequently visited, has caused the residents to deeply feel the negative impacts of tourism and to show their concrete reactions, and a concept called overtourism has emerged. It is estimated that this situation will be experienced in more destinations in the near future. On the other hand, in tourism destinations that offer tourism products and services that are predominantly seasonal, an undertourism situation, meaning the emergence of an unused idle capacity due to the demand remaining below the current supply during low season periods, is experienced. In tourism destinations experiencing both situations, living conditions become difficult due to the negative impacts of tourism perceived by the residents as costs, and the happiness of the residents is negatively affected as a result of this. Based on this, this research was conducted considering the importance of the relationships between residents' perceived benefits and costs of tourism, their well-being and happiness, and their support for tourism development on the basis of tourism intensity. Alanya is an important tourism destination that hosts many visitors every year and offers tourism products and services that are predominantly seasonal. The aim of this research is to reveal how the living conditions and happiness of the residents are affected by tourism development and how their happiness affects residents' support for tourism development as a result of examining the relationships between the variables specified in Alanya. In addition, a two-stage quantitative research method was used for summer and winter periods, and a total of 1046 questionnaires were collected through a questionnaire in both periods. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Within the scope of the research, it was stated that there is a risk of overtourism in Alanya according to tourism intensity calculations. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the happiness of the residents affects their support for tourism development, and the perceived effects of tourism play a decisive role in their well-being in different living areas. In addition, it was concluded that the variables of material and emotional well-being, health and safety well-being, and self-development have effects on the happiness of the residents. In addition, it was understood that the significant and negative relationships between residents' perceived costs of tourism and their well-being dimensions were stronger in the winter period compared to the summer period. It has been suggested to decision makers in Alanya that a quality-oriented policy should be followed instead of a quantity-oriented policy in tourism, that activities such as product diversification and market repositioning should be carried out in tourism in order to eliminate the seasonality problem, and that sustainable tourism policies developed should be closely monitored in destinations where overtourism issues occur.