Ecological Sustainability Activities in Travel Agencies: A Research on Encourages and Barriers

In the research, it is aimed to determine the factors that encourage and barriers the ecological sustainability practices of travel agencies. In this regard, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 travel agency managers operating in Istanbul. The data analyzed by the use of MAXQDA 2020 analysis software. Results of the analysis revealed that travel agencies don’t have enough knowledge in regards to sustainable tourism and ecological sustainability concepts and applications. In addition, it is seen that very few of the travel agencies have written policies, principles, and rules, in regards to ecological sustainability applications, which may lay a path firms and managers during managerial processes. Along with these, it is also determined that travel agencies have a low rate of participation to voluntary environment programs and certification applications for preserving ecological environment. First of all, this study is important in terms of contributing the literature since there are very limited number of studies which inspect the subject of ecological sustainability from the perspective of travel agencies. Secondly, it is also important to create a scale in regards to ecological sustainability applications and to provide managerial insight to travel agencies which are critical actors in terms of managing ecological sustainability due to their role of mediation between supply and demand.