Survival Strategies of Local SMTEs in Covid-19 Pandemic in Heritage Tourism Sites in Turkey

Abstract

Covid‑19 pandemic has been a multi‑dimensional challenge for tourism industry globally for more than 15 months now, but even so, there is a lack of information about the impacts of pandemic on different destinations and tourism enterprises. To contribute to the scientific endeavors to understand, explain, and explore the impacts of this disease on tourism, this research investigates the impacts of the pandemic on local small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) in Cappadocia Region, a globally well‑known Heritage Tourism destination in Turkey, and their survival strategies. Primary data was collected through structured interviews conducted with 97 respondents from two participant groups including respondents from small and medium accommodation facilities and tourism enterprises including auxiliary tourism services. We found that heritage tourism destinations and SMTEs located in these destinations seem to be much vulnerable to the impacts of Covid‑19 owing to destination characteristics. Findings show that great majority of the SMTEs has established solidarity based new business relations for survival but they also have spent their resources for future growth and investment which seem to jeopardize the recovery efforts