Abstract:

National and international tourism demands are constantly increasing in the province of Antalya, which is among the most important tourist attraction centers of Turkey with regard to its sea, climate, history, and cultural values. This study aims at determining how local people approach impacts of tourism in the central districts of Antalya. The local people living in the central districts of Antalya (Konyaaltı, Muratpaşa, Kepez, Aksu and Döşemealtı) constitute the population of the study. In the study first a survey was conducted of 464 people in these five districts, and then the answers of the respondents were analyzed by SPSS 20.00 with 0.05 significance level. Frequency analysis, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskall-Wallis analysis were carried out to evaluate the results. As the results of the analysis revealed, the expectations of local people from tourist profile are towards having qualified tourists, the uncontrolled tourism developments cause environmental problems, tourism activities increase the living standards of the society, and the current tourism policies do not support the sustainability of natural resources in the province of Antalya.

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