Sustainable tourism within the scope of the evaluation and protection of natural and socio-cultural assets: Case of Alaçatı

Natural and cultural resources of tourist destinations are among the most important factors of driving forces that attracts tourist demand to these destinations. Depreciation of these resources will cause decrease in value of the destination and will cause a change of tourist demand to other destinations. Along with the recognizing importance of the concept of sustainability in recent years, tourist destinations have begun to make various protection plans to sustain natural and cultural assets and also to preserve touristic values which will be passed on to the future generations. The aim of the protection plans is to develop tourism activities in the destination and to provide sustainable development without harming value of the destination sources. In this study, tourism products which are based on natural and cultural heritage in Alaçatı - as being one of Turkey's most important destinations - were investigated. The study consists of three parts. In the first part, sustainability and sustainable tourism concepts were discussed. In the second part of the study, concepts of tourism products and destinations as a combined tourist product were discussed. In the third part of the study, natural and cultural assets of Alaçatı were determined and protection plans necessary to provide their sustainability were identified. Expert opinions were obtained by making interviews with 15 managers, who are experts in tourism in public sector, private sector and civil community organizations. Data were analyzed by the content analysis. The findings of the research point out that, Alaçatı has high tourism potential and to enable sustainability of natural and socio-economic assets that attract tourists to the destination, private sector, local authorities and civil society organizations should work and unify in a common denominator. In addition, suggestions for sustainability of Alaçatı destination have been made in the study. Keywords: Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Product, Destination, Alaçatı.