The identification of local tourists' unethical behaviors in package tours and ethical codes regarding these behaviors

The development of the tourism sector today is remarkable and in the name of making this growth better and more accurate, it is significant that ethical values have place in the sector. In spite of the fact that the businesses and the employees have evaluated ethical capacities until now, the ethical aspects of the tourists have been taken into account less. Within the scope of this study, it was aimed to identify local tourists' unethical behaviors in Group Package Tours (GPT) and to write proper ethical codes that could prevent these behaviors. The reasons for choosing such a topic was the fact that the course of the tour can be negatively affected due to the possibility of local tourists' unethical behaviors during the tours. In the study, first of all, the theoretical framework of ethics was examined and theoretical information was given about tourists and package tours, and the necessary data were collected through observation method by participating in eight different package tours. Within the framework of the study, later on, focus group work was carried out with seven tourist guides and the data obtained by means of observation and new information was added. Finally, in the scope of the research, open - ended question forms were completed by nineteen bus drivers and with the additional questions, the new data was obtained. In the light of the data obtained from the research, unethical behaviors exhibited by the tourists during the tours were identified and behavior codes were revealed as the guide to prevent these behaviors from being repeated. Therefore, it was aimed to contribute the tours to be more free of problems and appropriate to ethical principles. KEY WORDS: Ethics, Tourism, Package Tour, Ethical Code, Tourist Ethics