Wine tourism in Turkey ? an exemplary product development model in Çeşme

In the modern tourism concept, we are observing a trend towards smaller scale quality production, an escape from crowds to secluded open areas, from simple recreation towards the appreciation of cultural and natural riches, from standardised mass production to special interest products, and from mass tourism to alternative tourism product types. As well, successful tourism destinations tend to follow a product diversification strategy, instead of relying on a sole product or attraction. In this framework, wine tourism, that is travel for wine and related attractions, is studied in this current work.Wine tourism is analysed in the scope of sustainable regional tourism development. Wine tourism product , generally developed in rural areas, is a complex and total tourist product built on the regional resource base, consisting of certain tourist necessities, amenities and facilities, and complete with a mix of attraction dimensions, namely quality wine production, wine culture, gastronomy, nature, wine tourism region image, recreation facilities, education and human resources. In the world, wine tourism is developed in some wine growing regions. While in the Old World wine tourism is based on tradition and local identity and develops widely unplanned, the New World relies on technology and pro-active planning of the development.Turkey, and especially Çeşme is at the beginning stage of wine tourism although being a historically and naturally very prosperous wine growing country and a developed tourism destination. Therefore Çeşme is selected as the study area of the current thesis due to the potential of development. Tourism in Çeşme is at the decline and is in urgent need of product diversification. A wine tourism product development model proposal is built on the conceptual framework and principles in the first two chapters. The success criterion of the model are sustainability and competitiveness and is a synthesis of the local identity and tradition merits of the Old World and strategic pro-active planning of the New World.For this purpose, primarily a positive attitude towards wine in the local people and the wine culture will be flourished in order to encourage the use of local resources. An institutionalisation model is proposed to draw out and apply the strategic development plan. Lastly, by means of promotional efforts and standardisation, a sustainable and competitive wine tourism development model is aimed to be developed.Keywords: Wine Tourism, Product Diversification, Special Interest, Sustainable Regional Tourism Development, Product Components, Regional Resource Base.