Hospitality Businesses in the Anthropocene Era

Abstract

As is known, the world is growing older, and many researchers accept that Holocene Epoch came to an end and Anthropocene Epoch started. It is argued that the world stepped into the Anthropocene Epoch along with the Industrial Revolution. Anthropocene Epoch means the ‘age of human’ etymologically and is defined as the dominance/supremacy of humans over nature. The effects caused by the increasing human activities affect the environment and tourism sector indirectly. The existence of tourism is based on natural resources to a large extent. Therefore, the conservation of natural resources is one of the issues of interest to tourism. Tourism researchers take responsibility for nature conservation and guide the public and private sector establishments through their studies. Therefore, tourism development can be understood as an essential driving force of the Anthropocenic changes. Following the Anthropocene understanding, modern tourism is a geophysical force that reshapes the Earth for human and climate change. This study aims to find out the practices of the accommodation establishments within the scope of sustainability in the Anthropocene Epoch. In line with the aim of the study, interviews are done with the department managers of the accommodation establishments that serve in Çeşme and have activities as part of sustainability. The content analysis technique is used for the analysis of the interviews. First, the content analysis technique is used in the study to reveal the steps and measures taken by the hotels for sustainable tourism activities and their awareness level. In the second part, the relational analysis method is used, one of the content analysis types. Collected data are loaded into the program, and analyses are made. First, the words mainly used together are detected, and their relations are analyzed. After determining the relations between the words, the codes and categories belonging to the regulations are defined. Lastly, themes are designated following the types. Keywords: Recycling, hotels and recycling, hospitality, and anthropocene