The relationship between the environmental attitude, behavioral role and support of the local public in sustainable development of tourism: Case of Alanya

The aim of this study is to determine the behavioral role of local people in the sustainable development process of a tourism destination and the affecting factors this role. In this context, local resident aged 18 and over living in Alanya, which is an important mass tourism destination both nationally and internationally has been determined as the population of the study Alanya,. The study was carried out on the local people living in 12 neighborhoods including the center of Alanya. The primary data needed were obtained through questionnaire forms. A total of 450 local people were reached and one-to-one survey was conducted with them. First of all, the validity and reliability of the scales in the questionnaire were tested. Then, CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) was conducted. As a result of the analyzes, four dimensions of the behavioral role of the local population were obtained. These are the environmental role, economic role, social role and cultural role. Environmental attitudes were collected under two factors as ecocentric and anthropocentric. The affecting variables the behavioral role of the local people were determined as their environmental attitudes. Local residents also support sustainable tourism development in Alanya. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to find the structure that was most effective on this support. Accordingly, the degree of selection of behavioral roles of the local population and their attitudes towards the environment have been found to have an impact on the support they provide for the sustainable tourism development process within a model.