Ecotourism has been encouraged by many proponents and supporters throughout the world recently.
It has broughed a new perspective to sustainable development approach as an alternative to mass
tourism. With its nature, culture and hospitable people, Turgutköy is a tourism centre which posseses
most of the key elements of successful ecotourism. The objective of this study is to figure out the
opinions of local people on socio-cultural impacts of tourism. In addition, this study also aims at
determining the tourism and ecotourism knowledge of the local people there. This study has both
quantitative and qualititative patterns. According to the collected data, the opinion of participators on
socio-cultural impacts of tourism is seen as positive. In the qualititative findings of the research, 3
different definitions, each for tourism and ecotourism, have been identified.
