Реферат: The development of sustainable tourism in Turkey

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey defines the following problems in today’s situation:

Developments towards mass tourism activities and particularistic approaches to tourism planning in Turkey have led to:

· Mass concentration at the Mediterranean and Aegean Coastal areas

· Distorted urban development\ house-building in back-shore and adjacent areas

· Deficient Infrastructure and environmental problems

In an effort to convert this adverse structure into a positive, favourable one, an integrated policy and strategy and application based approaches are being set within the scope of Tourism Strategy of Turkey-2023.

Turkey has set out plans for its tourism industry in the years leading up to 2023, when it will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.

As Turkey's undersecretary of tourism and culture, Ismet Yilmaz, said “the country could attract 50m foreign visitors a year and $50bn (Ј25.2 billion) in revenue by 2023.” However, he stressed that Turkey may have to move away from the current dominant model of tourism to achieve its goals, (Today's Zaman,03 March 2008 ) “For this to happen, the weight of sun, sea and sand tourism should shrink in the total tourism revenue figures while the share of other types of tourism increases,” Mr Yilmaz said. The minister added that, as well as establishing new resorts to attract wealthier visitors, the Turkish tourism industry would have to increase capacity in accommodation facilities to at least 1.25m beds. Turkey must also have a fleet of 500 planes, Mr Yilmaz predicted, as well as 5m people working in the tourism industry, ten conference centres, 40 marinas and 25 seaports.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry, which has completed its tourism strategy for the centennial of the Republic of Turkey in 2023, will create nine culture and tourism zones and seven tourism development corridors. By 2023, 10 tourism cities, 11 cruise ports, nine marinas and one airport will be part of the first leg of the tourism strategy; the first leg will be completed in 2013.

Turkey, which seeks to increase its bed capacity to 1.5 million, and the number of tourists visiting the country to 40 million in 2013, also plans to attract $50 billion in revenue from tourism activities involving foreign tourists. The goal for domestic tourism is $20 billion. Turkey, which plans to secure $1,000 in revenue per tourist, is set to make one of the biggest jumps in tourism in Europe.

The tourism strategy, implemented in coordination with the Transportation Ministry, State Planning Organization (DPT), Ministry of Public Works and Settlement, and Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, requires a review of all coastlines of Turkey. (01 February 2009, Εrcan Yavuz, ANKARA)

The strategy of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Turkey, to develop the new level of tourism is “to exhibit a planning approach that supports economic growth, is physically applicable and socially oriented and fairly reflects the principle of sustainable tourism”

The vision of the Turkey is “with the adoption with sustainable tourism approach tourism and travel industry will be brought to a leading position for leveraging rates of employment and regional development and it will be ensured that Turkey becomes a world brand in tourism and a major destination in the list of the top five countries receiving the highest number of tourist and highest tourism revenues by 2023”

The introduced document provides some suggestions to realize the vision, such as creating tourism products based on tourist profile, to strengthen international cooperation, to help increase the competitiveness of the tourism sector through creation of regional tourism brands rather than relying upon cheaper products, so on.

The document breaks down the individual actions on the following schedule, according to their implementation priority and expected returns on the timeline.

Table 7:Tourism strategy of Turkey-2023 Implementation phase

Source: The Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Turkey

Hypothesis

The second research question is:

Is Turkey becoming a world brand in tourism and has the possibility of becoming the major destination in the list of the top five countries receiving the highest number of tourist?

With its objectives:

+Examination of the world brands in tourism

+Examination of possibilities and opportunities of Turkey to become the major description in the list of the top 5.

Word brands in tourism

The World Tourism Organization reports the following ten countries as the most visited in 2007 by number of international travelers. When compared to 2006, Ukraine entered the top ten list, surpassing Russia, Austria and Mexico. Most of the top visited countries continue to be on the European continent.

Out of a global total of 903 million tourists in 2007, the following countries are the most visited.

Rank Country International tourist arrivals

1 France 81.9 million