Sustainable Tourism in Development Plans in Turkey: 1963-2028 Period

Although tourism is a sector dependent on environmental quality, it has serious negative impacts on the environment. Therefore, the implementation of sustainable tourism policies is necessary to protect the natural, historical and cultural environment, increase repeat tourist visits and develop competitiveness. The planned development process that began in Turkey in 1963 has given significant importance to the tourism sector. For this reason, 12 Five-Year Development Plans (DP) were examined and evaluated in terms of sustainability. Within this qualitative research model, there have employed document analysis method as a qualitative data collecting technique. Via Maxquda programme, code analysis, code document analysis, two case models, word cloud and similarity metrics methods have been used for data analyzing, in order to analyze the changes and relations between the plans. An examination of the 12 FDPs (1963-2028) reveals that early plans focused more on mass tourism, but did not take environmental impacts and sustainability into account. From the 1990s onwards, the concept of sustainable tourism began to feature more prominently in development plans, with environmental protection, local community participation, and economic and legal sustainability becoming priorities. The Seventh Development Plan, in particular, placed greater emphasis on environmental sustainability issues. According to the Maxqda analysis, environmental (27.3%) and economic (24.2%) sustainability were the most prioritised issues. Consequently, sustainable tourism policies have gained increasing importance in Turkey's development plans. However, concrete action plans addressing environmental issues need to be developed, and all stakeholders must be involved in the process. This study evaluates the place of sustainable tourism policies in planning.