Sustainability of Events and Eco-Events: The Case of “A Greener Festival

Abstract

Events are very important in tourism sector in terms of the introduction of cultural values, development of economy and attracting tourist to destinations. However, considering the environmental impacts of events, they can cause negative impacts like creating thousands of ton waste and destruction of cultural and natural assets by creating environmental pollution. In order to reduce the negative impact of events on the environment, one of the new type of events, ‘ecoevents’ has emerged in recent years. In this research, a conceptual study has been made about sustainable tourism and what eco-events are and why it is necessary. Also, information was given about the A Greener Festival institution which is one of the international institutions evaluating eco-events. The aim of the study is to determine the necessary eco related activities for the sustainability of the events or festivals by classifying the events awarded at the A Greener Festival Awards. The eco related activities of the 4 awards (outstanding, highly commended, commended, improvers) given by A Greener Festival non- governmental organization in 2017 were analyzed and the events in the outstanding and highly commended categories were analyzed by content analysis from qualitative research methods.