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.The main purpose of the businesses in the tourism sector is to increase their economic outputs, thus improving their competitiveness and ensuring its continuity.Although economic indicators are taken into focus, it is clear that tourism practices that will be carried out without considering the socio-cultural and natural environment will cause serious losses in the future.The importance of businesses working to build their own future in the tourism sector in terms of saving the socio-cultural and natural environment, which are the main supply sources of tourism, and carrying it to the future and ensuring sustainability cannot be ignored (Amoako et al., 2022).Travel agencies have the ability to manage and influence sustainability initiatives at the sectoral level, due to their intermediary role between supply and demand components in the tourism sector (Sigala, 2008(Sigala, : 1590)).The power of managing the preferences of tourists and influencing the practices of suppliers and destinations, increases the importance of travel agencies in the process of managing the effects of touristic activities.At this point, travel agencies should tend to sustainability activities and integrate sustainable management practices into their business processes, in order to reduce the negative effects on the economic, socio-cultural and natural environment caused by touristic activities and to increase the positive effects.This situation has led to the questioning and discussion of the function and role of travel agencies in the sustainability process (Kıvılcım, 2020 ; Russell et al., 2008: 126).The importance of the implementation of the sustainability process of travel agencies at the sectoral level, enabled the evaluation of sustainability initiatives in this businesses.In this context, sustainability areas in travel agencies