Marketing problems in micro cultural destinations and solution proposals: The case of Birecik

In the current century, tourism has a great importance in terms of the economic indicators of countries. Among many economic factors, a special importance is given to tourism, and regions compete with each other in the field of tourism. In this context, stakeholders try to get more shares from tourism revenues in order to increase economic development both in large-scale destinations (such as cities or towns) and small-scale destinations (townships, towns, etc.). However, especially small scale destinations cannot get the share they deserve from tourism despite their high tourism potential due to some structural and administrative problems. Although Birecik district of Şanlıurfa also contains cultural, historical and natural touristic values, it cannot provide sufficient benefit from these values due to problems in destination marketing. From this point of view, the current study was carried out in order to identify the destination marketing problems of Birecik, which is a micro cultural destination, and to develop solutions in this direction. In the study, in which the qualitative research method was employed, semi-structured interviews were held with the destination stakeholders, and within the framework of the marketing mix theory, the marketing problems of the destination and solution suggestions for them were determined. The findings show that there is not a significant price problem in Birecik; however, it shows that there are some important problems in terms of product, distribution (place) and promotion. In terms of product there is poor accommodation capacity and insufficient use of touristic resources, in terms of promotion there is poor promotion, and in terms of distribution not including the destination in regional tours are the prominent problems. Solution suggestions for all these problems are presented in the study.