Ecotourism through the perception of forest villagers: understanding via mediator effects using structural equation modeling

Ecotourism activities play an important role in providing economic gain to villagers living in forest ecosystems. Successful sustainable forest management is made possible through the environmental responsibility of the stakeholders and the support of the local inhabitants of the region. Contemporary studies conducted in ecotourism have focused on meeting regional expectations by assessing the satisfaction levels and attitudes of tourists and evaluating hotel management services, but have excluded the perspective of the rural people in the region. Using causal models and mediation effects, this study attempted to explore the attitudes of forest villagers, as the most important interest group, toward ecotourism activities in Turkey. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap methods were applied to identify key concepts related to ecotourism including the mediation effects between income opportunities and ecotourism satisfaction as perceived by the forest villagers regarding perceived negative effects and insufficient services. According to the results of the research, it was determined that, despite the perceived negative effects of ecotourism activities by the forest villagers, income opportunities made a strong positive contribution to their perceived ecotourism satisfaction. Study results offer significant implications for policymakers and ecotourism planners for decreasing pressure on forest ecosystems through participatory forest management approaches to sustainable development in rural areas associated with forest ecosystems.