Tourism in the organizational structures of metropolitan municipalities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a unit related to tourism is included in the organizational structures of metropolitan municipalities. Tourism attracts the attention of many developed and developing countries because of the participation of more than 1 billion 300 million people in 2017 and being one of the fastest growing and developing sectors in the world. Nevertheless, the competition among the tourism destinations continue to be intense. One way of achieving superiority against competing tourism destinations in this competition is to satisfy the tourists who prefer the destination to the highest possible level. The local people of a tourism destination need fundamental elements such as eating-drinking, entertainment, public transportation, cleaning, life and property security, communication and information in the place where they live the visitors also need these elements as much as the local people. At this point, municipalities have great responsibilities as local administrative units. According to the Culture and Tourism Ministry data, in 2017, the number of tourists coming to Turkey is about 38 million people. According to the World Tourism Organization, in 2017, Turkey is ranked 8th among the most visited countries in the world. Nearly 60% of the visitors come only to Istanbul and Antalya. Together with other metropolitan cities, this ratio approaches 80%. In this context, the organizational structures of the 30 metropolitan municipalities hosting such a large number of visitors will be examined on the official internet addresses and it will be determined whether they have a tourism related unit.