The Local's Reactions to Tourists Escaping to Nature After COVID-19: An Assessment on Bungalow Accommodation

This study is aimed to determine the reactions of the public towards Bungalows, which have reached significant numbers in the district as a type of accommodation preferred by tourists to escape to nature after the pandemic, and the tourists staying here. Quantitative research methods were used in the study. A questionnaire was preferred as a data collection tool. Convenience sampling technique was preferred for sampling and during the data collection process, 443 surveys were collected in Sapanca. The study findings reveal that local people support the escaping to nature behavior of tourists, which increased after the pandemic, in terms of their economic contributions, but criticize them for their environmental impacts. The environmental concerns of the locals who do not want more bungalow investments in their regions are greater than their economic gains. While the study measures the reactions of the local people regarding the increasing bungalow-type accommodation, it fills a gap in the literature by supporting the views that there may be reactions at routine times to the developments caused by COVID-19 in tourism.