Istvan Egresi

Residents’ attitudes to tourists visiting their mosques: a case study from Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT Resident perception of tourism impacts has been one of the most studied areas of tourism. However, there is an extremely limited literature on resident perceptions of religious tourism development, especially in non-Western countries. This study investigated the attitudes of local residents toward tourists visiting four important mosques in Istanbul, Turkey and their perception of religious tourism development. All residents surveyed were practicing Muslims who prayed in a mosque at least once a year. We found that, in general, local residents are supportive of tourists visiting their mosque, but the level of support may differ based on the demographic and cultural background of the residents as well as on the number of tourists visiting the mosque.

Globalization, Mass Tourism, and Sustainable Development

This introductory chapter will introduce the reader to some of the primary concepts recurring throughout this book such as “sustainable development,” “sustainable tourism,” and “mass tourism.” We argue that rapid development of mass tourism in Turkey, starting with the 1980s, can be best understood in the context of global changes. We explain how processes of globalization have enabled the rapid growth of the industry, especially in its mass form. Next, in light of discussions in this book over the sustainability of mass and alternative forms of tourism, we proceed to conceptualize and frame “sustainable development,” “sustainability,” and “sustainable tourism.” We argue that since sustainable development is a socially and politically constructed concept, there is no standard understanding of sustainable development, but rather a wide spectrum of attitudes and levels of commitment toward sustainable development. Our other argument is that there is no single way to achieve sustainability. We also point out that scale should be an important factor when analyzing sustainability. While tourism activities could produce a lot of damage locally, their impact may appear to be totally benign when examining a larger area.

Shopping and Tourism in Turkey: The Perfect Combination

Shopping tourism has been known to boost the appeal of destinations, generate local economic growth by creating new sources of revenue, stimulate local production, and support the development of the retail sector in destination areas. For these reasons, local authorities, including the ones in Turkey, support the development of a diversity of shopping venues. The purpose of this chapter is to assess Turkey’s potential for shopping tourism and to gauge the importance of different types of shopping outlets in attracting international tourists. Situated at the intersection of major trade routes between Europe and Asia, Turkey has always been an important destination for shopping. Tourists shop in Turkey for very different reasons. We found that these reasons and the nationality of the tourists are important determinants of the type of shopping outlets such international tourists to Turkey prefer to patronize. For example, most cross-border shoppers are looking for bargains and prefer to visit wholesale outlets and neighborhood bazaars. Western tourists, in general, shop for souvenirs and for the cultural experience, so they will prefer traditional markets (bazaars), while tourist shoppers from developing countries look for quality merchandise and brands in modern shopping malls. The combination of different types of outlets (malls, bazaars, wholesale, etc.) provides great opportunities for anyone who decides to visit Turkey, regardless of whether shopping is their primary or secondary motivation for travel. We also found that, of all international visitors, tourists from the Middle East have the greatest propensity to shop while visiting Turkey, and we suggest that more studies are needed on the shopping behavior and shopping satisfaction of this group, in order to better understand their particular needs and concerns. Knowing them, the authorities could better focus their efforts, so as to provide tourists from the Middle East with a remarkable shopping and travel experience, thus providing them with an incentive to return.

Alternative Tourism: Definition and Characteristics

Part I of this book outlined the stages in the development of mass tourism in Turkey, emphasizing the important role it has played in Turkey’s economic development strategy. However, as pointed out in Chap. 3, the development of mass tourism also had some very serious negative repercussions. These negative impacts were ignored or minimized by the government during the earlier stages of tourism development, as the emphasis was on growing the number of tourists and revenue. After 2000, however, this view started to change, with the more recent governmental tourism policies emphasizing the need for Turkey to encourage the development of alternative forms of tourism. This chapter starts by examining a number of possible solutions to the problems caused by mass tourism development, focusing particularly on the development of alternative forms of tourism. In this sense, alternative tourism is defined and discussed in relation to a multitude of factors, and the case studies presented in Part II are shortly introduced.

Tourism and Sustainability in Turkey: Negative Impact of Mass Tourism Development

Mass tourism has played a critical role in Turkey’s strategy for economic development. However, mass tourism development has not been without costs. This chapter will critically examine the impact of mass tourism on destination areas in Turkey. This chapter argues that tourists tend to consume more vital resources than local people and generate more waste and pollution. We also found that local people have benefited very little from tourism development. The main benefit for them is the provision of jobs, but most of these are seasonal, part-time, low-skilled, and low-paying. Tourism has also brought them higher prices and a de facto segregation from tourists in the coastal areas, where they appear to have lost the right to access beaches and other coastal lands which used to be public in the past but seem to be reserved for tourists nowadays.

Post-Fordism, Alternative Tourism and Sustainability

In the first two parts, we showed how, recognizing the limitations of mass tourism, the Turkish government is now actively encouraging the development of alternative forms of tourism in the country. In Part II (introducing alternative tourism), we demonstrated that many such niche forms of tourism have great development potential in Turkey. However, are alternative forms of tourism really more sustainable than mass tourism? The five chapters reunited under Part III (assessing alternative tourism) will try to answer this question. This chapter has aimed at providing the basics for the understanding of two widespread claims in the literature that are debated in the following chapters: alternative tourism as a form of post-Fordism and alternative tourism as sustainable tourism.

Local Gastronomy: A Tasty Tourist Attraction in Turkey

As competition between destination countries increases, their differentiating characteristics become more important for attracting tourists. Lately, as a marker of local culture, gastronomy has become an important factor in destination identity formation and could be used successfully to differentiate between very similarly looking mass tourism destinations. Gastronomic tourism refers to travels outside one’s place of residence with the main purpose of learning about and/or tasting foods and drinks that do not belong to one’s culinary system. Defined this way, gastronomic tourism also includes visiting food museums and vineyards or wineries, as well as attending food festivals. The purpose of this chapter is to identify Turkey’s potential to develop gastronomic tourism, create a map of regional foods and drinks, and evaluate the significance of gastronomic tourism for Turkey. This chapter found that although Turkish cuisine is characterized by great regional and local variety, gastronomy is not used as a promotion tool to market Turkey to tourists, and the diverse regional cuisines are rarely mentioned in the official Turkish tourism promotional materials. Although, more recently, the number of gastronomic tourists has been increasing, more needs to be done to transform food into an important tool in destination image building.