-3810 9705340 TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY | DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ehitajate tee 5 19086 Tallinn, Estonia Registry code 74000323 Phone +372 620 2002 E-mail
[email protected] www.taltech.ee 0 0 TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY | DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ehitajate tee 5 19086 Tallinn, Estonia Registry code 74000323 Phone +372 620 2002 E-mail
[email protected] www.taltech.ee 5882640 428625 0 0 -2540 438150 0 0 Prof. Dr. Kutay OKTAY Kastamonu University Faculty of Tourism Tourism Management Department Kastamonu/TÜRKİYE October 09 , 2025 No. delta_regNumber 11-40/MM/1265-1 Invitation Letter Dear Prof. Dr. Kutay OKTAY, We are pleased to inform you that your request to be a visiting researcher at Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Business Administration (Tallinn, Estonia) under the International Researcher Programme, launched by the Council of Higher Education of the Republic of Türkiye, has been accepted by our institution. Your research proposal, entitled ‘Nature-Based Tourism and the Circular Economy: Assessing the Baltic Countries' Green Practices for Sustainable Adaptation in Türkiye’, has been deemed acceptable by the Sustainable Value Chain Management Research Group and the Marketing Research Group within the Department of Business Administration. The project's objectives and expected outputs are in line with the research topics of our research groups and the strategic scientific collaboration interests of our researchers. The project primarily aims to explore how circular economy principles and green transformation practices in the Baltic region can be integrated into nature-based tourism strategies in Türkiye and vice versa. The other outputs of the project are as follows: Development of practical knowledge-based recommendations for nature tourism areas in Türkiye and sharing good practices with relevant institutions in Türkiye and in Estonia (seminar), At least one joint scientific publication of research findings in journals indexed in the WoS or Scopus databases (preferrable Q1 or Q2) as co-authored article with TalTech colleagues (publication), Strengthening academic cooperation with Tallinn University of Technology and Kastamonu University in the field of sustainable tourism and establishing new areas of collaboration for the future (research seminar and networking meeting about R&D grant national / other grant opportunities for international collaboration and research by Türkiye). As the host institution, we will help arrange access to the databases of the Tallinn University of Technology Academic Library and to a shared workspace within the library. We will assist in organizing meetings (including at least one research seminar to present the research and its results, and at least one collaboration meeting to discuss scientific cooperation). We will also provide guidance in finding relevant Estonian contacts needed for data collection and help establish connections with TalTech researchers and lecturers with whom to co-author a high-level scientific publication under the Prof. Dr Kutay Oktay’s guidance. In this regard, we invite you to our university as a visiting researcher from 18 May to 14 August 2026 to conduct this research project, and we wish you success in your application to the International Researcher Programme. Kind Regards, delta_signerName \* MERGEFORMAT Merli Reidolf Head of Department