SPORTS AS A 'GREEN PRODUCT' IN DESTINATION MARKETING: CASE OF WINDSURFINGIN CESME, TURKEY

Year 2015, Volume: 10 Issue: 39, 6596 - 6606, 30.07.2015

Gurhan Aktas Banu Atrek Sumeyra Kurt

Abstract

Within a wide array of academic and practical studies existing in the literature on sustainable tourism development, there is still a need for further research assessing the sustainability of different tourism forms and their components. It is the argument of this research that, in the fiercely competitive tourism sector, the implementation and management of sustainable tourism development plans would offer potential benefits to sports tourism destinations alongside a ‘greener’ competitive advantage in marketing spheres. In this context, this research attempts to answer: whether marketing sports attractions in destinations would help stakeholders recognize the need for sustainable tourism development, and; whether sustainable sports tourism development could become a catalyst in promoting sustainable development of destinations. The specific attention is paid into tourism’s impacts on natural environment, on which the sports type selected for investigation – i.e. windsurfing – highly depends for its existence. Since the analysis of a green product within a destination milieu requires thorough understanding of all stakeholders’ roles within a tourism network, interviewing sector stakeholders was selected as the main research methodology for primary data collection in addition to literature review on the topics of sustainable tourism development and green marketing.

 

Keywords

Green marketing, sports tourism, Cesme, Turkey, windsurfing, sustainable tourism

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