A study on the relationship between public institutions, civil society organizations and tourism: The example of Van

Tourism stands out as one of the effective sources in the promotion, economic development and income generation of cities. Therefore, it is important to reveal the existing tourism potentials. The opinions and suggestions of the public institutions, local governments, non-governmental organizations and tourism stakeholders, which are the research subjects of the study, were received. Van province is an important tourism destination thanks to its cultural richness, historical and natural beauties and the tourism diversity it offers in many areas. Sustainability of tourism in Van and increasing its potential have an important place in terms of social and economic development. The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of public institutions, local governments and non-governmental organizations such as chambers, unions and associations in Van province regarding the tourism potential of Van, to determine their ideas on using or developing the tourism potential more effectively and to reveal their contributions to the development of tourism diversity in Van. Within the scope, the opinions of 24 participants were obtained with the semi-structured interview technique and 9 themes and 20 categories were created in line with these opinions and 41 subcategories were determined depending on these categories. The suggestions of the participants regarding the development of the tourism potential of Van province were presented together with the research results.