The impact of cultural routes on local development: The case of the Lycian Way in the Western Antalya Region

Local development is defined as the process in which various actors, such as local governments, social groups, and the private sector, work together to efficiently manage existing resources, enhance economic vitality, and improve living standards. The tourism sector plays a crucial role in creating new job opportunities at the local level and contributes to the development of accommodation, transportation, and service industries in regions where it thrives. In this context, it is known that organizations exist worldwide and at the national level to support development through various sectors in order to ensure sustainable growth. The development of cultural tourism provides significant advantages in revitalizing tourism, promoting a country's cultural heritage, and ensuring its preservation. There are many tools available for integrating existing cultural values of a region into tourism and safeguarding cultural heritage—one of which is cultural routes. Evaluating cultural routes within the context of the tourism sector leads to increased economic investments along the route, thereby contributing to local and regional development. In this regard, organizations have been established to create, promote, and support cultural routes through economic investments. These organizations have economic investment projects that bring together local stakeholders within the tourism sector. This thesis aims to examine the relationship between cultural routes and local development. Within the scope of the study, the concepts of development and tourism have been compiled, organizations established to support development have been analyzed, and cultural routes existing in both the world and Turkey have been researched. A comparison has been made between the processes of creating and promoting cultural routes in Europe and Turkey. The mechanisms providing support for cultural routes at national, regional, and local levels have been investigated. The study explores the tourism activities and economic investments taking place along the Lycian Way cultural route and presents findings on the route's contribution to the region.