Evaluation of Sustainable Rural Tourism. The Case of Uzundere District, Erzurum, Turkey

The Uzundere district, which is located in NE Turkey, has attractive rural tourism areas with noticeable potentials and rural tourism development activities. This paper concentrates on sustainability development of rural tourism. Sustainable tourism concentrates to conserve environmental and cultural resources and emphasizes on the responsibility of tourists and participation of local people for economic growth of the region. In this study, Delphi method is used to identify important factors for evaluating sustainable development of rural tourism in the Uzundere region. It consists of thirty-three indicators in four dimensions: service quality, facilities, management system, and results. Indicators are advisers for future tourism development activities at all levels of planning. These indicators plainly reflect the situation of area tourism. In this study, a questionnaire was prepared to evaluate the rural tourism developments in the Uzundere region, based on the Delphi method. Expert opinions were taken with the participation of ten experts of the region. This study showed that tourism development projects in this region are promising in order to achieve the goals of sustainable rural tourism. In addition, in cases identified during the research, there is a need to develop approaches and experiences to address the relevant shortcomings and deficiencies.