As part of the VIMAS project, guest doctoral researcher İlker Gül presented his developing paper titled “A Framework for Categorizing Public Goods in Nature-Based Tourism” at the 6th Conference on Managing Tourism Across Continents (MTCON’25), held in Istanbul from April 30 to May 3, 2025.
The session was chaired by Prof. Sara Dolnicar, editor of Annals of Tourism Research, and provided a valuable platform for discussing how public goods are defined, categorized, and delivered within the context of nature-based tourism.
İlker Gül commented about his experience: "MTCON offered a valuable platform for attending various sessions, workshops, and keynote speeches. I had the opportunity to meet with leading researchers Sameer Hosany and James F. Petrick, editor of the Journal of Travel Research. We exchanged ideas on sustainability and how it may shape travel and tourism activities in the future. Moreover, the conference experience reshaped my developing paper, and I restructured it with a more tourism-based approach for public goods. This conference also helped me gain insights into current trends in tourism research and develop a broader perspective for my future academic work."
The project "Visitor monitoring and management in protected and recreational areas: new challenges, novel solutions for the Anthropocene (VIMAS)" aims at developing more efficient governance of nature areas for tourism and recreation, in the best way possible for biodiversity, people’s quality of life and business development. This will be achieved through research about smarter monitoring methods, improved visitor management and more inclusive governance.
