Moderating role of place attachment on the relationship between positive and negative impacts of and support attitude towards tourism

The perception of residents about positive and negative effects of tourism and their attitudes toward tourism development are among the issues frequently examined in the tourism literature. Determining the perceptions of the people living in the region where tourism is undeveloped, and tourism activities not intense, towards the effects of tourism and tourism development, knowing the views of the local residents' on tourism activities is of great importance in terms of ensuring sustainable tourism development in the region. Accordingly, Göbeklitepe, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as of 2018, has a rich historical and cultural potential, due to the fact that tourism has not yet developed and there is no study conducted to measure the perceptions of the local residents on the effects of tourism has been selected. With this study, it was aimed to determine the perceptions of people residing in the vicinity of Göbeklitepe towards tourism and their thoughts on tourism development. At the same time, the effect of place attachment perception on the relationship between how these people perceive the effects of tourism and how they receive tourism development in their region was tried to be determined. The data were collected from 391 participants through the questionnaire forms created in the study were analyzed with the statistical package programs. First, factor analysis was applied. Then, correlation analysis was performed to measure the relationship between variables, and the relationship between perceptions about the effects of tourism and attitudes toward tourism development was examined the regression analysis. The results of the study indicate that due to the lack of development of tourism in the region there is no clear perception of the positive and negative effects of tourism and that tourism development is generally supported. At the same time, the study shows that as the sense of place attachment of residents increases, their support for tourism development decreases.