POST COVID-19 AND A FIELD STUDY ON CITTASLOW PERCEPTION IN TURKEY

Abstract

Today, improving the quality of human life and living in a healthy and calm environment is increasing in importance day by day. Heavy use of resources as if they will never end has become the reason for preference to calm and natural destinations for travelers. Starting from this point the slow city (cittaslow) approach has emerged. This approach started in Turkey in 2009, and as of 2022, 21 cittaslow titles have been registered in our country. It has been observed that the Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged at the end of 2019, deeply affected the demand trends of the tourism industry globally. This study aims to examine the cittaslow perception of tourists and tourism demand for Turkey during Post Covid-19. Within the scope of the field study, data were collected from tourists visiting Turkey, tourism businesses operating in cittaslows, travel agencies, and local governments with survey forms. The obtained data were analyzed with the quantitative method in the SPSS 26 program, and the other part was analyzed with the qualitative method with content analysis. In the conclusion part, necessary evaluations were made.