A research on the determination of the tourism and recreation potential of the Troy Historical National Park

The global environmental problems today have increased the importance of protected areas due to their threat towards the living beings and biologic life chain. Ensuring the conservation-development balance is the main principle of sustainability at national parks that are established in order to meet the tourism and recreation needs of people without damaging the ecologic balance. In this research, the natural and cultural features of the park were put out and each scale was evaluated by means of scale reports. As a result, the total rates of usage, preservation and tourism potential was determined as 56,7 %, 48,9 % and 7,8 %, respectively. It was seen that when the preservation value is considered, only the one eighth of the park is possible to be used, although the area has a high potential. This result of a low tourism potential in the area is natural, due to the area?s status as a national park. A questionnaire was also made in order to determine the deficiencies of the area and the expectations of both the local community and the local - foreign tourists. According to this, the large part of the participants expressed the deficiency of the infrastructure for recreational use. After the evaluation of the obtained results with other results, the priorities of the area are determined and suggestions are given towards developing the tourism and recreational use of the area, while preserving its resource values. Keywords: Nature Conservation, Conservation-Development, Sustainability, Troy Historical National Park, Tourism and Recreation