Abstract:

Sense of belonging is an emotional bond that occurs between individuals and their country, hometown, religion, culture and workplace. Ecotourism, on the other hand, is travel to relatively unspoiled natural areas that are sensitive to the environment, offer benefits to the local people, and include education. In the study, the relationship between the sense of belonging and ecotourism perception of the local people living in Amasya was examined. In this direction, it is aimed to determine the effect of the sense of belonging of the local people on the perception of ecotourism. The data obtained by the questionnaire technique from 440 people living in Amasya were subjected to correlation and regression analyzes for the hypotheses determined within the scope of the study. As a result of the analysis, a moderate relationship was determined between the sense of belonging and the economic perception, environmental perception and socio-cultural perception dimension of ecotourism. In addition, it has been determined that the sense of belonging has a statistically significant effect on these three dimensions.

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