Regional Identity And Cultural Landscapes For Sustainability Of Ecotourism From Tourist Perspectives İn Duzce Ugursuyu And Aksu Basins

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning Elites

Year: 2018

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/5th-caue.2018.02.37

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Regional Identity And Cultural Landscapes For Sustainability Of Ecotourism From Tourist Perspectives İn Duzce Ugursuyu And Aksu Basins

Pınar Gültekin ,Osman Uzun, Yaşar Selman Gültekin, Sinem Özdede and Sertaç Kaya

ABSTRACT: 

Cultural landscape is a concept that emerges from people who live in the geographical area where they belong, by changing their natural landscapes and reflecting their own characters. Thus, cultural landscapes can be interpreted as a symbol that reflects the values, philosophy, history and government of that community. The diversity of natural and cultural values at the local and regional scale contributes to the formation of regional identity. Cultural landscapes can also be considered as a sign and source of regional identity. It is not enough to have only natural resources for a tourism destination in ecotourism planning. An area containing in historical, architectural, social and cultural identity contributes to its original values by reducing the chance of imitating an area for ecotourism sustainability.In this study, it was aimed to determine the opinions of the ecotourists who have the potential to visit Uğursuyu and Aksu basins, to determine the extent to which user demands and expectations influence cultural landscapes; and to bring proposals for the protection and development of regional identities. Surveys were carried out on the tourists and daily visitors in the Akçakoca and Karasu Coast bands, Sapanca Lake and Abant Nature Park, which are daily trips to Istanbul and Ankara metropolises. Within this scope, 240 surveys were applied to the tourists and visitors who came to the mentioned areas. 207 surveys were accepted as valid. In the evaluation of the applied surveys, ‘SPSS 22’ statistical package program was used. In the analysis; frequency, cross table and one-way variance analysis were applied. In the survey, questions were asked about how participants attended to information about demographics, destination preferences, how they had previously participated in ecotourism activity, where they participated in ecotourism activity, how preferences of locality-specific values affected their preferences and also were tried to evaluate visitor loyalty. On the back of the survey, 20 photographs reflecting the natural and cultural landscape elements of Uğursuyu basin (13) and Aksu basin (7) are evaluated in 1,2,3,4,5 point intervals in terms of adjective pairs such as pleasant-unpleasant, interesting-boring, safe-unsafe…
As a result of the survey, tourists preferred areas that offer accommodation and activities where local elements and local people are located, but they did not choose natural areas. They only stated that they could visit the region with the aim of seeing cultural values. According to the results of the obtained data, the conflict between the conservation of cultural landscapes and the evaluation of ecotourism activities was evaluated in the study area, and suggestions on the development of regional identity and the sustainability of ecotourism activities are brought forward.

Keywords: Cultural Landscape, Duzce, Ecotourism, Regional Identity, Sustainability.