The effect of local development to winter tourism: A study in Ordu

With the accelaration of globalization phenomenon, competition has increased, economic, social and technological changes have occurred. In parallel with these changes, the sustainable development modal has become the first strategy of the countries for the sustainable economy. Espacially in underdeveloped and developing countries, growth and development are possible together with all stakeholders in the society (local governments, private sector, local people). The reduction of regional imbalances and the start of a planned development process are undoubtedly directly related to this situation. In this process, tourism services play a locomotive role for local development in regions that have economic value and have limited resources and can use effectively in development. As a matter of fact, today many destinations are using the touristic values they have in an effective way in local development. Winter tourism is one of them. Although Ordu has many important values in terms of tourism, it has not yet reached the desired level in terms of development compared to other regions. On the other hand, winter tourism activities are expected to play a key role in the local development process of Ordu. In this context, the aim of this thesis is to determine the effects of winter tourism activities on the local development in Ordu. Within the framework of the research, a semi-structured interview was carried out with 24 participants in Ordu, in the period of March 2020, with the interview technique, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The results obtained revealed that winter tourism in Ordu province has an important potantial and can accelarate the local development process and make important contributions, as well as increasing investments, solving the transportation problem, diversifying socio-cultural activities and giving more importance to promotional activities.