Visitor Perceptions of The Role of Tour Guides in Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

Undoubtedly, development of sustainable tourism activities is closely related to the protection of natural resources. Protection of natural resources is an important issue that should be taken seriously by the communities. Natural resource management includes sharing all the necessary responsibility for the purpose of protecting natural resources, ensuring the sustainability and leaving it to the next generation. This paper aims to explore the visitor perceptions of tour guides to contribute to the protection of natural resources by educating their customers through interpretation and modeling environmentally appropriate behaviors. Also it examines the potential role that tour guides can play in natural resource management and sustainable tourism.  The survey has been conducted in Turkey. The questionnaire and role attributes have been developed based on a review of the literature. Data have been collected using two approaches. (1) The pre-trip questionnaire has been asked guided visitors to rate the importance of various attributes of the role of their guide. (2) The post-trip questionnaire has been asked guided visitors to rate the performance of these same attributes. The findings have been discussed within the natural resource management and sustainable tourism approches and important assessments and recommentations have been made about the direction and quality of the policy and planning towards the tour guiding in natural resource management.

Keywords: Visitor perceptions, Tour guides, Tour guides’ roles, Natural resource management, Sustainable tourism, İmportance-performance analysis.