The attitudes of local residents toward tourists in the Destination of Marmaris, Turkey

Abstract

Being one of the known tourism destinations in the world, Marmaris, a coastal city, is preferred by many local and foreign tourists. In 2019, about 1,350,000 foreign tourists and 419,000 local tourists stayed overnight in Marmaris, while local residents, consisting of about 95,000 people, hosted tourists. This study aims to determine the settled attitudes of local residents in Marmaris, which is located in the southwestern region of Turkey and which has transformed from a small fishing town into a preferred tourism destination, toward tourists. In the chapter, the studies of Var, Kendel, and Tarakcioglu (1985) examining Marmaris constituted the starting point. The researchers tried to identify how the local community of this small town that was declared as a tourism development area by the Turkish government in the 1960s perceives the social impacts of tourism. In their study, they stated that the Marmaris community was not studied from this perspective before and they chose the Marmaris community as the target population of the study as they thought this community symbolized a series of cultural values. The authors conducted a survey for the Marmaris community in the peak season of 1980-1981 and analyzed valid data of 98 participants. Among the results of their study, the following points become prominent: local residents perceive the positive and negative effects of tourism; they find meeting with tourists valuable as an educational experience; and they least prefer to see in Marmaris the tourists who are Turkish locals, who come from the Middle East, and who are Turkish workers living abroad. In this context, it was aimed to determine whether there was any change in the local residents' attitude toward tourism and tourist in Marmaris since the 1980s, and to determine its direction and level, if any. Besides, the issues such as the dissolution of the USSR in 1989, Russian tourists visiting Marmaris with an increasing number of each year, and residents' attitudes toward Russian tourists will be examined for the first time in the scope of the study. In the relevant literature section of the study; the titles such as the effects of tourism, attitudes towards tourism, stereotypes of Turkish people for different nations, and Marmaris destination were mentioned. In the study, a quantitative research method was adopted, and a questionnaire consisting of 3 parts was applied to collect data from the field, and the data were collected from the population formed by the residents of Marmaris through an online survey. The first part of the questionnaire included questions aiming to determine demographic characteristics, while the second part covered local residents' attitudes towards tourism and its effects, and the third and the final part included questions aimed at determining the stereotypes of local residents for tourists of different nationalities. The data obtained were analyzed in the SPSS 22.0 program, the findings were interpreted, the results and suggestions were made, and the study was concluded. The assumptions and limitations of the research were: the reliability and validity of the data collected in the research were limited by the features of the data collection methods; it was assumed that the participants answered the research questions correctly; the questionnaires planned to be made face-to-face were carried out online due to the Covid-19 and the measures taken by the Turkish government and by social responsibility; finally, insufficient time. The literature of the study has been listed according to the effects of tourism in destinations, perceptionsand attitudes towards tourism, Turkish stereotypes of different nations and the people in Marmaris.