Tourism Tourism Teachers' Perception of Ecotourism: Example of the Eastern Black Sea Region

Abstract

One of the most important types of the tourism sector in recent years has come to the fore as ecotourism. With the spread of ecotourism around the world, there has been an increase in the number of touristic demands, and therefore it has gained an important place among the income obtained from tourism. In this context, ecotourism education and training content issues have begun to be addressed. Factors such as the appreciation of natural areas, health problems around the world and the escape from city crowds have enabled ecotourism to progress as an important type of tourism. The perceptions of teachers teaching in the field of tourism about ecotourism are important in terms of clearly teaching future generations what ecotourism is. Education is one of the cornerstones of ecotourism and serves as a powerful tool to increase environmental awareness. While ecotourism experiences encourage participants to think about the environment, education nourishes this thinking with knowledge and understanding. Ecotourism and education form a strong unity that serves the goals of environmental protection and sustainability. The main purpose of the study is to reveal the thoughts of teachers working in tourism schools about ecotourism. Quantitative analysis method was used in the study and the data was obtained with the SPSS program. A total of 220 teachers participated in the study, and as a result of the answers received, teachers' perceptions of ecotourism were tried to be determined. When the findings obtained as a result of the study are evaluated, it is seen that the participants believe that ecotourism has various positive effects on the region and their perceptions are positive. In general, there is a high opinion that ecotourism contributes to issues such as economic contribution, assistance in promotion, development of commercial activities, protection of nature and historical-cultural texture, and improving the quality of life. As a result, it has been determined that vocational high school educators who provide tourism education have a high level of ecotourism perception and believe that ecotourism has positive effects on the region in terms of economic, environmental and sociocultural aspects. As a result of the data obtained from the study, it was revealed that teachers teaching in the field of tourism were knowledgeable about ecotourism, but did not have sufficient knowledge about the application of ecotourism to students and the operation of ecotourism around the world.