Cultural tourism potential and alternative of Adıyaman province culture route suggestion

Adiyaman who have hosted many civilizations has a special place also in Turkey's tourism. Due to its location, the city, which has been the focus of many military and commercial activities from past to present, has an attraction in terms of tourism, especially the historical heritage of the Commagene civilization. However, since there is no real potential study for these attractions, decision makers in the field of tourism often try to manage the tourism of the province by doing local studies. This research, addressed precisely for this reason, was carried out to serve this purpose. In this context, the study is basically handled from two different perspectives. The first of these is to reveal the tourism potential of the province, and the other is to determine an alternative culture route. In this context, the determination of the culture-tourism potential of Adıyaman, the design of the routes, the creation of an alternative route by determining the appropriate roads, and the mapping of the route has been realized. Study area; Situations such as accommodation, transportation, and infrastructure were determined and suggestions were made for the improvement of these opportunities. An answer to the question of what is the tourism image of the city has been sought and the necessary solutions have been developed to gain identity in this direction. In addition, solutions were offered for the protection of natural and cultural assets with a sustainable tourism approach. There are tumuli, mausoleums, bridges, legion roads, baths, mosques, old trade roads, cut and piled hills, cave settlements from ancient times and cave tombs on our study route. The prepared route map is the first for the study area. It will also set an example in terms of route maps and promotions to be prepared for Adıyaman and surrounding provinces to be prepared later. This thesis study consists of three parts. In the first part of the study, the historical development of the concept of culture route, in the second part, information about the general characteristics of the province of Adıyaman and its tourism potential were given, and in the third part, the data obtained by the survey application were analyzed and evaluated. The province of Adıyaman was determined as the population of the survey study conducted to suggest an alternative cultural route by determining the cultural tourism potential of Adıyaman province, and Adıyaman as the sample was determined as the local population who saw all or a few of the cultural assets over the age of 18. The study was applied to individuals over 18 years old and suitable for all education levels. Survey; It was applied to a total of 350 participants, 188 of which were men and 162 women. In the conclusion part, some suggestions have been made for the development of touristic uses of Commagene Cultural Road focused on nature and culture tourism and for the evaluation of Commagene Cultural Road as a cultural route.