Green-Star Symbol for Environmental-Friendly Facilities in Hotels in the Context of Sustainable Tourism: A Research in Konya, Turkey

Öz

In recent years, touristic destinations have put a negative effect on the natural environment in their surroundings. The government agencies around these destinations have started taking some precautions in order to avoid this problem, created by tourism. Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism grants “Green Star-A Symbol for Environment-Friendly Facilities” to the accommodation services, which are one of the most important elements of tourism within a campaign, initiated as “Campaign for Environmental Sensivity in Tourism” for sustainable tourism. In this study, the purpose is to determine the levels of awareness in terms of the destruction of natural environment, within the accommodation facilities in Konya province (n=15), which is an important touristic destination in Turkey. The results indicate that the accommodation facilities are aware of the certificate called “Green Star-A Symbol for Environment-Friendly Facilities”, but they are not informed about the contents of its criteria, as it does not bear a legal obligation; that there is only one accommodation facility, which owns a “Green Star-A Symbol for Environment-Friendly Facilities”; that none of them has an environmental policy and an action plan in general other than chain and institutionalized accommodation facilities; that the renewable energy resources are not taken into consideration sufficiently; however, almost all hotels have precautions for energy efficiency and energy save, besides taking necessary measurements for water use and waste materials.