Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
both countries including the coordination of
their activities within the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation(BSEC)...ThePartiesshall
facilitate tourist traffic between their countries in
accordance with their respective laws and
regulations and without prejudice to their
international obligations and will encourage the
cooperation between enterprises and
organizations operating in the field of
tourism. In this context, mutual visits, meetings
and seminars between entities operating in
the field of tourism shall be encouraged and
organized.
(Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2000:
Articles 2 and 9)
European Union accession will encourage
Turkish tourism stakeholders to cooperate with
their partners in the EU, from whatever country. It
can be idealized that Turkey and Greece could
promote themselves as a single destination to
tourists for whom travelling to only one country in
Europe and/or the Middle East is not a desirable
option. While this kind of cooperation might
increase the attractiveness of both countries to
overseas travellers and their bargaining power
against foreign tour operators (Timothy, 2002),
establishing facilities in their common borderlands
may increase demand from a wide range of
markets. Such cooperation in tourism is required
across Europe to encourage macro-level rational-
ization of resource use and sustainability (not least
in Cyprus - see Chapters 16 and 18).
Turkey's movement towards EU member-
ship has encouraged many EU citizens, most of
them retired, to settle on a temporary or perma-
nent basis in the country's coastal zones. By
2004, 11,000 foreigners had bought holiday
homes; 4900 of these foreigners from Germany,
Sweden, Norwegian, Finland, Denmark and
Northern Ireland settled in Alanya (Turizm
Gazetesi, 2004a). As is the case for many mass
tourism destinations, seasonality is one of the
biggest problems for the tourism industry in
Turkey (Tosun, 1999). However, the burden of
seasonality and its spill-over affect appear to be
lessened in some local mass-tourism destination
such as Alanya, Fethiye and Anamur due to
the fact that retired people from EU countries
tend to spend their winters in coastal hotels,
while some have settled permanently (Turizm
Gazetesi, 2004b). This appears to help utilize
over-capacity and to attract and retain emplo-
yees (see CEC, 2003).
Strategies for Sustainable Tourism
Development in a 'Europeanized'
Turkey
If Turkey does not take measures and establish
strategies for its own tourism development by
taking into account global trends in the inter-
national tourism market, its competitiveness
and sustainability will be compromised.
Possible strategies and policy recommendations
for sustainable tourism development in Turkey
will now be considered.
Product differentiation for sustainable
tourism development
Existing tourism development requirements, as
represented by Tourism Encouragement Law
No. 2636, were designed and put into effect in
1980 by the military-led government without
taking into account environmental, social and
developmental impacts of tourism. At that time
the main objectives of tourism were to generate
desperately needed foreign currency and estab-
lish political credibility for the government
(Tosun and Jenkins, 1996). Thus, the govern-
ment gave priority to large-scale mass tourism
investment projects to meet its short-term policy
objectives (Tosun et al ., 2003).
The myopic policy objectives of the 1980s
and 1990s, in tandem with the encouragement
of international tour operators, saturated the
carrying capacity of coastal regions (Tosun and
Fyall, 2005). Table 21.3 indicates that in 2000,
83% of Turkey's international tourists visited
the coastal regions, and 91% of the nights spent
by foreign visitors were in these regions, down
from 92% and 96% respectively in 1997. Given
the problems associated with coastal mass tourism
development and the implications of Turkey's EU
accession for its own tourism, this suggests that
product differentiation is a major requirement
for a structurally and spatially more balanced
tourism development. There appear to be sev-
eral areas where diversification of the tourism
product can take place.
Cultural and heritage tourism, ecotourism,
faith tourism, event tourism, rural tourism, spa
and health tourism, sport tourism and winter
tourism are among the range of activities and
Search WWH ::




Custom Search