Tourism and regional development: The determination of the development level of tourism in the provinces of Turkey

44978

Tourism, which has become widespread with the effect of globalization and consumer culture, has started to influence, reproduce and transform spaces with its capitalist production relations and organizational forms. This spatial organizational form unique to capitalism has also made an impact on the regional development of tourism in Turkey as well as in different regions of the world. Regional statistics and indices covering different tourism variables play an important role in ensuring balanced and sustainable development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to propose a spatial model by establishing a tourism index for the provinces of Turkey, determine the level of development and contribute to a more balanced development in terms of tourism throughout the country especially by identifying development-oriented provinces. In line with this purpose, a data set consisting of 18 variables obtained from public institutions for 2017 has been established in the study, and the tourism development indices of the provinces have been calculated with Principal Component Analysis. Subsequently, the clusters formed by the provinces according to the tourism development levels with Hierarchical Clustering Analysis were mapped and interpreted using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). As a result, capital together with the implementation of neoliberal policies in tourism in Turkey has concentrated tourism investment and the tourism market in Istanbul and the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, which has increased tourism-dependent inter-regional development differences.

125

Regional development , tourism development index , tourism geography , Turkey

Aegean Geographical Journal

140

Aegean Geographical Journal