ABSTRACT
Issues surrounding environmental degradation rapidly increased in the late 1970s in Turkey, as in many other countries. Growing realization of this from the early 1990s prompted important changes in environmental consciousness, attitudes, and behaviour of Turkish people, but any corresponding increase in environmental awareness of business is yet to emerge fully. Hence, it is useful to assess the developing nature of Turkish policy and business practices in the tourism sector to establish the background context for current policy, practitioners, and interested parties who are more attuned to environmental impacts. In establishing a close connection with environment and development, the World Commission of Environment and Development has declared that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This notion of sustainability has grown in acceptance by governments, NGOs, and many environmentalists since the 1992 “Rio Conference” on the environment. The proponents of sustainability argue that natural, thus invariably tourism, resources should be used in such a way that future generations will also be able to benefi t from these resources. This has come to be generally supported and promoted by national, regional, and international organisations, as well as by legal provisions and agreements. Also, government and tourism agencies, complemented latterly by the initiatives of various professional bodies, have been turning their attention to aspects of the environmental performance of tourism enterprises (Leslie, 2007). Turkey is no exception, and in refl ecting the basic premise of Agenda 21, a number of basic principles for sustainable and economically successful tourism have been proposed (Tosun, 2001). In 1989, the Hague Declaration on Tourism focused on the place of tourism in economic and social development. It is regarded as a viable tool for economic development that takes into account environmental conservation. Subsequently, the focus of activity has shifted to the global politics of sustainability as green geopolitics supported by the United States and the European Union (Roe et al., 2003).
