Perceptions and opinions of tourism stakeholders in the use of cultural heritage for tourism: The case of Yozgat

It is seen that the interest in cultural heritage tourism has started to increase, especially with the changes in tourist profiles in recent times. Destinations that are aware of this change are working to benefit from the tourism sector at a high level. The participation of tourism stakeholders is very important in bringing the works that have a touristic attraction and/or can be turned into a touristic attraction to tourism. The main purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of cultural heritage of tourism stakeholders in Yozgat, which has been the settlement center of many different civilizations throughout history and is believed to have a significant level of cultural heritage, and whether there is a lack of perception, knowledge and/or support of tourism stakeholders in the use of cultural heritage resources in the province for tourism purposes. At the same time, by introducing cultural heritage assets in Yozgat, it is one of the other objectives of the study to raise awareness for tourism stakeholders, locals, tourism enterprises and to be an example of the work that has been/planned to be done to make Yozgat a new destination. In this context, face-to-face meetings were held with 40 tourism stakeholders in Yozgat, including senior managers in local governments believed to have a say/authority on tourism, owners/directors of tourism enterprises, heads of non-governmental organizations in the field of tourism and cultural science, and academicians. The data obtained from the participants were analyzed with the descriptive analysis technique. According to the data obtained, it is understood that the perceptions of cultural heritage of tourism stakeholders are sufficient but the necessary importance is not given to the studies on tourism. It was determined that the tourism stakeholders within the scope of the research had knowledge about the cultural heritage assets in the province and supported the use of these assets for tourism purposes. In addition, it has been determined that almost all stakeholders have common opinions about the reasons why tourism does not develop in Yozgat and offer the same proposals for the elimination of these problems