The Effects of Covid19 Pandemic upon Tourism: a Sample from the City of Kars

This study aims to determine the effects of Covid 19 upon tourism sector in Kars The study benefitted from three methods, the first of which involved analyzing the articles by scanning via Nvivo analysis program Secondly, a semi-structured interview was conducted with ten employees However, this number was seen inadequate;thus, the questionnaire was conducted with 387 people to compensate for this inadequacy The data were analyzed through SPSS and AMOS, and examined Covid 19 effects upon tourism on the basis of demographical variables The results revealed that dismissals from hotels and restaurants were common, the business experienced a serious loss of income, they needed support from the government to recollect and at least one year was required to turn back to conditions before The results indicated that people had a negative attitude towards tourism activities, hesitated to travel and thought that they would not be able to find service quality, sincerity and hospitality as they had before Moreover helping us realize that, due to Covid 19, females were more worried when compared to males;the married ones were more anxious in comparison to single ones;and the elderly had more anxiety when compared to the young


INTRODUCTION
The human being has cut off himself from natural life as a result of industrial and modern developments continuing for 300 years. The disasters and crises occur as a result of consuming natural resources cruelly and selfishly. Consuming will animals due to increasing demand for meat as a result of urbanization leads some viruses and the bacteria to transmit to human body unintentionally.
Following globalization, urbanization and decrease in agriculture and forests, the wild animals consumed culturally by being caught in the nature have been replaced by the wild animals fed inappropriately at markets. The animals bought from wild livestock markets cause people to be subject to more diseases (Hall, Scott and Gössling, 2020, p.4). For instance, the disease stemming from the first SARS virus, which was effective during winter season of 2003-2004, was detected with a waiter working at a restaurant presenting animal species such as nandine as food and with a customer who was sitting and eating close to animal cages at the restaurant in Guangzhou, China. Afterwards, SARS-CoV was detected in six nandines fed in the cage so as to be sold (Wang et al., 2005(Wang et al., , p.1860 Simultaneously, international travel has been remarkably suspended and domestic travel has been significantly restricted. The tourism activities known and practiced only several months before ended (Niewiadomski, 2020, p.3). Therefore the study aims at exploring to what extent Covid 19 pandemic has influenced businesses, customers and employees in tourism sector in Kars.

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8% and sore throat in 5% of them were observed (Chen et al., 2020, p.507). Fever, cough, dyspnea and muscle pain regarded as the main symptoms are not peculiar to this disease and can be observed with every patient going through common cold. For this reason, it is impossible for somebody to detect by himself whether he has contracted Covid 19.
The Covid 19 disease was declared as pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March, 11, 2020(WHO, 2020. The disease spreads as people contact with surfaces contaminated by the droplets formed when those suffering from Covid 19 sneeze and cough and those droplets find their way to mucosa area where ACE-2 receptors are located (Pal and Bhadada, 2020, p.514 The increase in travel and tourism opportunities has brought in the opportunity for people to travel more easily, as a result of which international activities such as sport, scientific ones, meetings, religious ones and socio-cultural ones have increased (Estevão and Costa, 2020). Thus, tourism activities are regarded as the most significant factor behind the spread and transmission of the disease. National and international tourism activities in many countries were stopped or prohibited together with Covid 19 (Chakraborty and Maity, 2020, p.5) as it spread from Wuhan to everywhere in China in thirty days.
The movements of domestic immigrants wanting to spend China Spring Festival with their families have been effective in spread of the disease so quickly. Furthermore, many travels were actualized due to business and tourism activities, and therefore, the virus has increased its speed of spread and contagiousness both in China and all around the world (Shi and Liu, 2020, p.1 962.151 tourists visited Istanbul during February, 2020, therefore, the fact that the rate of pandemic is three times more than its population in Istanbul, whose population accounts for 20% of the total population in Turkey, can best be explained by tourism activities (Sahin, 2020, p.2). All the hotels in Turkey have been closed down since March, 16, 2020. Moreover, only take-away services are allowed at restaurants. According to explanation made by World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism activities decreased by 22% in the first quarter and it is expected that they will decrease by 60% or 80% till the end of the year due to Covid 19 (UNWTO, 2020).

METHODS
The aim of the present study is to illustrate the effects of Covid 19 upon tourism in accordance with demographical variables. The study was conducted between May, 1 and May, 19, 2020 in Kars, a historical city in the northeast of Turkey. Distinct from other cities with its works of Baltic architecture such as Catherina Palace, Kars has attained a significant place in terms of tourism thanks to historical sites such as Ani Ruins, Sarıkamış Ski Center, and Apostles Church.
The first step involves detecting the articles through searching terms "Covid 19 and Tourism" over Science Direct (2020) data base. The 63 articles found in this way were examined one by one and it was found that 39 articles were related to the subject matter. The other 24 articles were eliminated due to the fact that they involved superficial information only by stating that the tourism would be influenced greatly. 39 articles involved in the study were analyzed through Nvivo program.
As a result of the analysis made through Nvivo program, it was agreed that conducting a study to evaluate the effects of Corona on hotel and restaurant staff would be appropriate. The interview questions were formed as 28 questions by reviewing the literature. Following that, expert opinion was applied and based upon their opinions, the survey was structured as six questions would consist of demographical variables towards determining the level of education, age, marital status, years of experience, field of expertise and income while 11 questions involved questions to measure the effects of Covid 19.
The results of the interview indicated that people were worried about Covid 19 and hence they could not do shopping, the income of business dropped by 90 % and the present condition would not improve immediately. A questionnaire was formed so as to measure trueness of detections and to determine the reasons behind people's concerns, which was formed by utilizing from Covid Stress Scales by Taylor et al. (2020) and was practiced with 387 people. 9 out of 22 questions in the questionnaire were found to be ineffective in terms of evaluating the subject matter and their factor load

RESULTS
Whereas 108 Figure 2. Moreover, the word "airline", being of great significance for tourism, was realized to be repeated for 90 times, the word "hospitality" for 86 times, the word "restaurants" for 31 times and the word hotel" for 27 times. Based upon literature analysis, it is thought that a study should be conducted upon hotel and restaurant repeated less frequently and not examined satisfactorily.

Figure 1. Nvivo Analysis Results
As a result of the analysis practiced through Nvivo program, a study to be carried out with the aim of determining the effects of Covid 19 upon hotel and restaurant staff has been estimated to be appropriate. In this respect, a semi-structured interview consisting of 11 questions was conducted in such a way as to involve different employees.
The information regarding those interviewed is given in Table 2. Moreover, Participant 1, Participant 2, Participant 3, Participant 4 and Participant 5 are those who work at separate restaurants with ten tables and hosting over 50 people simultaneously. Participant 6 works at a boutique hotel with tourism certificate, Participant 7 works at a two-star hotel with 69 total bed amount, Participant 8 works at a four-star hotel with 100 total bed amount, Participant 9 works at a three-star hotel with 50 total bed amount and Participant 10 works at a four-star hotel with 140 total bed amount. and P9) stated that there weren't and seven participants said that they had enough. The employees were generally observed to wear washable masks and it was found that the restaurants gave more importance to hygiene when compared to the hotels, which is considered substantially to stem from the fact that the hotels were closed although the restaurants gave service to their customers through take-away service.
The participants were also asked "Do you feel safe against Covid 19 in business where you work?". Four participants (i.e. P1, P4, P8 and P9) stated that they didn't feel safe. Participant 1 noted that he/she had concerns about whether the customers coming to take the package carried the disease or not although the customer came only to get the packages. Participant 4 stated that he was anxious as many people contracted the disease in the region where he lived and that those people took service from the restaurant where he worked. Besides, Participant 8 and 9 pointed out that they had to get in contact with people unavoidably as the hotel they were working at was located in a busy street.
The other questions asked were "Was your workplace disinfected and how often is this procedure repeated? Are disinfection procedures controlled by any institution? How often is it disinfected against Covid 19?". All the participants stated that disinfection was performed and three participants (P2, P3 and P5) noted that it was performed everyday while the others remarked that it was performed every two days. They also pointed out that they cleaned their working space three times every day apart from professional disinfection procedure. Additionally, they claimed that disinfection procedures were followed by the municipality.
Another question directed at the participants was "What kind of measures did you take for safety of the customers?". Five participants (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5) pointed out that they were attentive in terms of the products served as enclosed, they washed the dishes and other materials used during production at 60 °C and they did drying with great care. Three participants (P6, P7 and P10) stated that an important measure was taken by closing down the hotels as they were indoor spaces. Two participants (P8 and P9), however, suggested that closing down the hotels was not necessary, majority of the people walked around the cities and had close contact with one another and therefore the measures were not adequate.
The participants were also asked "What is the ratio and effect of measures taken all around the country upon volume of business?". The participants working at restaurants (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5) suggested that there had been a decrease in the ratio of 80 % and 90 %, which was stated to result greatly from the fact that the students went back to their hometowns and people were afraid of doing shopping at the restaurants even if they were in packages. Participant 6 and 7 stated monthly loss of income as 25.000 Turkish Liras, Participant 8 as between 300.000 and 400.000 Turkish Liras, Participant 9 as 80.000 Turkish Liras and Participant 10 as 120.000 Turkish Liras because the hotels were closed down.
The participants were additionally asked "What is the effect of Covid 19 on tourism and your business?". The participants working at restaurants (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5) pointed out that The city of Kars had an increasing potential of tourists because of city' gaining popularity in recent times; and that the tourists had a volume of business in the ratio of 10 % and 20 % as they generally came to the city with full holiday packages and ate food at the hotels. In terms of business volume, it was found that the ratio of those coming from Igdir and Ardahan, from towns and villages to Kars a day long was between 50 % and 60 % while the ratio of officials was between 30 % and 40 %. Participant 3 suggested that the number of their customers coming from towns and villages a day long decreased because of difficulty in entrance and exit of vehicles and thus they were much more influenced. Participant 1 stated that the officials rather than tourists came to have meal at the restaurants during their lunch break, however they 792 had experienced a huge decrease because of flexible shift arrangement. Those working at the hotels noted that the tourists coming from other cities constituted the highest percentage of their customers and many reservations made by contractual tour operators were cancelled. Moreover, Participant 10 told that sales representatives of big companies coming from other cities would not come as in the past and this situation would lead them to lose customers as well.
The other question asked to the participants was "Did you have experience any effects such as dismissing from the job or reductions in your payment in your business? Did this situation trigger the fear of being dismissed from the job?". Four participants (P1, P2, P4 and P5) working at the restaurants suggested that some of their friends were dismissed and they had experienced worries about being dismissed as their friends. Participant 3, on the other hand, stated that he thought of closing down his business and give a break and that they continued to have an income through take-away system although it was not profitable. Among the hotel employees, one participant (P6) noted that they had overcome the process without any problems since their hotel was the branch of a big firm. One of the participants (P8) pointed out that they dismissed everybody and only a private security guard, the manager and he were working and the payment of the manager was cut in half by the boss. The other three participants (P7, P9 and P10) said that they were worried about dismissal since dismissals were performed and that the employees utilized from short time working allowance.
Additionally, the participants were asked "It is really possible to remove the Covid 19 bans immediately and turn back to normal conditions?". The participants (P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5) working at the restaurants stated that at least several years were required to turn back to normal conditions and there would be serious changes in the number of tables and sitting arrangement. Moreover, different tendencies such as drive-through, self-service instead of a la carte service to reduce human contact were suggested to be developed. On the other hand, the staff at the hotels pointed out that human interaction would be more distant and therefore big hotels and all-inclusive systems should be revised as the present situation would continue for another few years.
Another question asked to the participants was "Do you think that the business you work at will be able to resume on or will it need public support so as to continue for its activities?". One of the participants said (P6) that the companies with a strong background generally overcame global crises much more powerfully and therefore the hotel he worked at would resume on its activities more powerfully and firmly. The other nine participants (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P7, P8, P9 and P10) pointed out that support from government were unavoidable and thus supports such as payment of employees' salaries by the government for a while, enabling one year deferred zero-interest credits to the business and distributing money to each citizen on a complimentary basis in order to increase consumption.
To enable reliability, the data were evaluated simultaneously by two researchers, and the analysis results were calculated via the formula "Consensus Percentage (P)= (Agreement (Na) / (Agreement (Na) + (Disagreement (Nd))) × 100)" suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). The consensus percentage of the study was calculated as ~87 %, the analysis was decided to be reliable as the rate was over 70 %.
Following the review of literature made through Nvivo, some lacking points were observed, which were tried to be compensated by means of a semi-structured interview. However, in consequence of the interview, a new analysis was considered to be necessary in order to provide clarification since the customers were realized to have concerns and to have changed their preferences. A questionnaire was formed so as to measure trueness of detections and to determine the reasons behind people's concerns. In order to measure whether the data obtained through the questionnaire had a normal distribution or not, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were performed. Since kurtosis and skewness values were between +1.5 and -1.5, the sample had a normal distribution according to Denis Transportation is an indispensable element of tourism. 56 % of airline transport around the world is constituted by tourism activities. Based upon tourism, airlines provide job opportunity for 35.7 million people and perform 896.9 billion $ business volume (Iacus et al., 2020). The fourth dimension, Hope, measures people's expectations for service, hospitality and quality in tourism activities. The information and analysis regarding the questions are presented in Table 2.

Hope
Hope3 "I think the service quality will decrease in touristic areas due to the virus." 0,992 0,701 Hope2 "I think hospitality in tourist areas will decrease due to the virus." 0,626 Hope1 "I think there will be no friendly atmosphere in the tourism regions due to the virus." 0,349 According to Alpar (2013), the values detected are of high and medium reliability. With the aim of presenting concordance of the formation existing as a result of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis was practiced upon scales, which is displayed in Table 2 and Figure 1. The interpretation of confirmatory factor analysis was made in accordance with criteria suggested by Yaslioglu (2017)

Figure 2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis
The questionnaire formed to compensate for the lacking points was practiced with 387 people and demographical information obtained is displayed in Table 4. that of Xenophobia sub-dimension was 4.01, that of TC sub-dimension was 3.71 and that of Hope subdimension was 3.79. When the averages were taken into consideration, they were found to be appropriate for very criterion (Taylor et al., 2020). Due to the fact that the results obtained were high, the gender, marital status, age, level of income, level of education, travel method and travel reason were taken as control variables and the effects of Covid 19 on tourism were examined in terms of those variables through t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of t test indicated a statistically significant difference in TC sub-dimension which had a smaller value than 0.05. From Hair et al.'s (2014) point of view, if p value of t test result is smaller than 0.05, this suggests a statistically significant difference. The difference in TC sub-dimension is thought to stem from the fact that moving from somewhere to anywhere is regarded as the responsibility of males. The fact that 75.9 % of driving licenses in Turkey belong to the male drivers confirm this claim (General Directorate of Security, 2020). The results of t test revealed a statistically significant difference in sub-dimensions of Concern, Xenophobia and TC. The married individuals take over more responsibilities such as taking care of children, enabling education opportunities, protection of family members and providing financial opportunities when compared to single ones. As a consequence, it can be suggested that the married individuals are more cautious about taking risks and more worried about risks. Moreover, a statistically significant difference was found in Concern dimension, which suggests that people have more concerns about airline transport in comparison to road transport due to the virus.
This concern is thought to result from the fact that people have more contact with each other during airline transport as it is a closed space and air conditioning is provided through a common system.
Parallel to this analysis, flight cancels due to the virus and reduction in capacities because of social distance all around the world occurred, which resulted in a decrease approximately by 60% and 80% airline industry (Sobieralski, 2020). The difference observed in accordance with age was with individuals at the ages of 18-21 and with all the individuals in the other age group according to Tukey test. It is thought that the individuals at the age group ranging from 18 to 21 find travelling less dangerous as a result of their indulgence on freedom and their efforts to prove themselves. As the age rises, the rate of concerns is observed to increase. Moreover, it is considered that the explanations made by the media regarding the fact that the effects of Covid-10 are higher with the elderly have influenced the attitude of the young.  Undergraduate programs in Turkey constitute a level of education performed at university so as to provide a more qualified and eligible employment of intermediate staff in certain areas. The measurement of service, quality and hospitality perception of Hope sub-dimension is being performed.
The average values of graduates of undergraduate programs who work predominantly at service sector is lower than those of other groups. The result indicates that the graduates of undergraduate programs who have taken vocational training have more moderate thinking in the field of tourism. Those planning to have a journey abroad are considered to be more humanistic and moderate when compared to other groups. Thus, there is a statistically significant difference between those performing visit to family and those travelling abroad according to Tukey test. Such a difference is thought to result from indulgence of those performing family visits to their families and their feelings of protectiveness. Furthermore, Xenophobia is realized to be higher in all but those travelling abroad.

5.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
A great concern and dilemma is experienced in Turkey. Dilemma towards Covid 19 pandemic and having no definite idea regarding when it will end influence the psychology of people. The interview conducted with ten people revealed that 4 people felt unsafe in their working place and that there was a great concern among people. Many negative things such as lockdown practiced within the context of Covid 19, not being able to perform routine activities, changes in consumption habits and unemployment pave the way for serious problems in terms of people. The problems and victimization for victimized women and children increase during lockdown. The fact that a beloved person is taken to hospital because of Covid 19 leads him/her to stay away from his immediate surroundings and prevent his/her acquaintants to visit him/her. This process passes with disappointment, despair and anxiety for both sides (Vieta, Pérez and Arango, 2020). The findings obtained in China reveal that more than 25 % of the general population experiences symptoms in relation to moderate or severe stress or anxiety as a reaction to Covid 19 (Taylor et al., 2020).
Arranging comprehensive training and holding them as compulsory are necessary within the context of Covid 19. However, the results indicated that such training was not arranged and taken seriously. In workplaces, serious problems were experienced in terms of enabling daily protective material and especially masks. Ultimately, the problem of mask was overcome greatly as sale of masks was set free. Various measures in terms of disinfection and hygiene were taken by the workplaces.
However, performing tests to the customers and taking special measures to carry those tests require public liability rather than workplace liability. Healthy Tourism Certification Program including serious practices within the context of public liability has been published, However, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, who gave information about Healthy Tourism Certification Program to Anatolian Agency (AA), official information agency of Turkey, stated that getting this certificate was not compulsory. (AA, 2020). Due to those problems faced and measures not taken, it is possible for tourism in Turkey to be damaged greatly.
Because of measures taken, the business were either closed down or permitted to make limited practices, as a result of which great financial losses were confronted. The business owners expect support from the government on a complementary basis, however, they are enabled to delay credits or get loan with low interest rate through public banks. For this reason, it seems possible for many businesses being in service before the pandemic to close down. As a result, the rate of unemployment is expected to rise. So as to prevent unemployment due to Covid 19, during April, Short Time Working Allowance was enabled to the employees and 268.717 firms and 3.044.420 employees applied to this allowance,12 % of whom is constituted by those working in the fields of accommodation and food services. (Hurriyet, 2020). The number of applications only during one month displays the scope of unemployment.
It is expected that international tourism activities will be influenced much more when compared to domestic tourism activities as airline transport is regarded as more worrying. Moreover, increasing Xenophobia is estimated to effect international tourism as well. The mobility of Far Eastern tourists is considered to be restricted. This effect is, additionally, estimated to be felt more predominantly in places such as Nevsehir, hosting Far Eastern tourists.
It is not seen possible for the present order in tourism sector to be arranged in a way as appropriate to pandemic and to provide profitability. Using only 40 % of the capacity at a hotel designed to give service to huge masses will not for a profitable structure when social distance is considered. A decrease by 89 % was experienced in hotel occupancy rate in China between January, 2019 and January, 2020 whereas this rate was determined to be 6 % in Italy where the disease was felt intensely (Nicola et al., 2020). Unfortunately, it seems impossible for the present situation to get better without developing a drug or vaccine against the pandemic. Even if vaccine and other practices work out today, time will be necessary for the people to turn back to their past life styles and habits of consumption. Therefore, 802 tourism sector is expected to take the shape in which tourism sector performs in an isolated way and human relationships are more distant.
The present study has some limitations as it was conducted in a way to involve only the city of Kars. Because of the fact that there was no sea in Kars, the questions regarding sea transport and cruise tourism were not responded properly and the questions regarding them were removed from the questionnaire. Railway transport is not preferred much due to the fact that it takes much time although railway transport is available in Kars. Unfortunately, the same problem was confronted in terms of railway transport as well.