FROM TOURISM GEOGRAPHY PERSPECTIVE SALDA LAKE (TURKEY) AND NEAR SURROUNDING

Abstract

Salda Lake, located within the borders of Yeşilova district of Burdur province in the Antalya Section of the Mediterranean Region, is one of Turkey's most popular tourist attractions. Located in the southwest of Turkey and encompassing many lake basins, the “Lakes Region” has been designated as the “Lakes Region Ecotourism Development Region” in the Turkey 2023 tourism strategy and attention has been drawn to the tourism potential of the lakes in the region. Located in the Lakes Region, Lake Salda draws attention with its natural beaches and water sports opportunities, rich flora and fauna, recreation areas and camping areas by the lake, various accommodation opportunities and natural beauties, healing lake waters and rich tourism diversity. Rural tourism, lake tourism, ecological tourism, winter tourism, botanical tourism, health tourism and cultural tourism are the most developed types of tourism in and around Salda Lake. In this research, the geographical location, tourism potential and main tourism resources of both Yeşilova district and Salda Lake were examined. In addition, in this article focused on tourism geography, the negative ecological and socio-economic effects of increasing human pressure and tourism activities around Salda Lake were investigated. In this study, which deals with the examination of Salda Lake and its surroundings in terms of recreation and tourism activities, the natural and human environmental factors of the region are analyzed, and the main tourism advantages and disadvantages of the region are discussed. At the beginning of the most important results obtained from this research, it has been determined that factors such as climate change, uncontrolled and intense touristic flow, increasing environmental pollution and illegal construction threaten sustainable tourism in the Salda Lake basin.