Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Tourism in Tourist Destinations: A Qualitative Case Study from Türkiye

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigated the critical success factors for Türkiye’s competitiveness in sustainable tourism practices. The study is based on data collected from face-to-face qualitative interviews with key tourism stakeholders in Antalya (n = 15) and Istanbul (n = 15), Türkiye’s most popular and most visited cities. A qualitative multiple-case study approach was employed as a research design, and content analysis was used to analyze the data using an abductive technique. The findings confirm that an all-inclusive system creates the main obstacle to achieving sustainable tourism and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Antalya, with overtourism being a main sustainability challenge in Istanbul. Further, it was found that the dependency between tour operators and hotels hinders the development of alternative tourism, subsequently causing barriers to the sustainability of destinations. Moreover, technology was proposed as the most influential driver in integrating sustainable tourism, CSR, and awareness.