Özet:

In the destination of Marmaris that began to attract domestic and foreign tourists of sun, sea, and sand tourism as of the 1950s, İçmeler district is a settlement where large-scale tourism businesses are located and economic activities are focused on tourism. In İçmeler, there is a widespread of opportunities for tourists, including accommodation, restaurants, souvenir shops, places of entertainment, and apart-hotels where tourists can spend time together with the local people; it also presents a different touristic texture thanks to its blue flag beaches. In order to meet the expectations of all tourism stakeholders and to make tourism sustainable in İçmeler with its sun, sea, and sand tourism-based structure, social carrying capacity should be known by tourism planners and officials responsible for tourism management. “What level is the social carrying capacity in İçmeler?” question inspired the study, and the social carrying capacity of the local people towards tourism and tourists, in other words, whether they are satisfied with tourism activities and tourists was tried to be determined through the study conducted in this sense. For field research, 400 local people were delivered questionnaires, and data obtained from 315 responded and valid questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 package program. It was determined that the local people’s level of “tourism experience towards social carrying capacity” was high (3,846 ± 0,646), that the “market value and income increase” subscale was very high (4,295 ± 0,851), while “traditional and psychological change” (3,893 ± 0,880), “socio-economic change” (3,611 ± 0,838), and “physical development” (3,695 ± 0,982) subscales were found to be high. Besides, it was concluded that 75.6% (n=238) of the respondents “desired tourism to continue to develop in the region” and “they were satisfied with their tourism experiences”. In line with the findings, it can be said that the social carrying capacity was not exceeded in the experiences of local people towards tourism in İçmeler.

Anahtar Kelimeler: