Determining the tourism potential of Altındere Valley National Park with respect to its cultural resource values

Abstract

Of the announced protected areas around the world, national parks in particular enable recreational and touristic activities due to their diverse resource values. However, as a result of intense use by visitors, many of these areas are heavily threatened by destruction. The current study aims to determine the tourism potential of ‘Altındere Valley National Park’ in terms of cultural resource values following conservation and utilization principles. The study reveals which resource values need to be conserved and which can be allowed to be used. In the scope of the study, using a mathematical method – ‘criterion reports method’ – a survey was conducted among several groups that were made up of specialists of different disciplines. The cultural resource value of the field was investigated to determine the utility and conservation values, and the general exploitable touristic potential of the area was calculated. Through the applied method, general exploitable touristic potential of Altındere Valley National Park was found to be about 32%. According to the obtained result, despite the high utilization value of the national park, it was detected that half of the area is eligible for utilization due to the effect of conservation values.