Abstract
Ecotourism in Turkey from Past to Present and the Scientific Awareness
The phenomenon of eco-tourism was first described by Ceballas-Lascurian in 1987 as travels made to appreciate, enjoy and making studies on landscape, flora and fauna as well as past and present cultural values in areas where human's destructing effects are relatively low. In short, ecotourism is basically an activity that aims to protect the natural environment. Turkey has a remarkable nature tourism potential because of its geographical richness and natural resources. Ecotourism which was included in the Eighth Development Plan covering the years of 2001 - 2005, in which policies on the development of the winter, health, yacht, congress tourism, ecotourism, making investments while preserving and developing the historical and natural environment were deterimined, has gained importance in Turkey. In this study, the research focused on determining the natural and cultural resources of Turkey and using them as alternative resources for the development of ecotourism were examined. In this context, the study has attempted to provide a basement for identifying the ecotourism awareness over the years and the sustainable development of ecotourism.
Keywords
Ecotourism, Awareness, Natural resources, Cultural resources, Landscape.
