Bird watching activities as a segment of ecotourism in marine protected area and the potential of İzmir Bird Paradise

Turkey has a plenty of potential for the natural life because of its geological constructions, the weather characteristics, archeological and cultural richness and also thousands of species for the plants and animals. Recently, such richness made the ecotourism activity more excited current issue. Many ecotourism activities have been performed in Turkey. For example, the bird observation is a meaningful activity within them. In this study, bird observation was considered by using the structural features of ecotourism. The main goal of this study was to define the identity of the ecotourists who preferred Turkey. For that purpose, the internet survey was constituted and daily bird observation data was used in electronic medium. A questionnaire was prepared from the daily bird observation diaries and the potential of the Izmir Bird Heaven which has many serious risks investigated. Multidimensional Measurement Techniques (MDS(X)) was performed during the data analysis. Regarding to the results of analysis; most of the observers were studied in Interior Anatolia while the others observed in East Anatolia, Mediterranean and Aegean. Most of the observers were examined average 2-5 regions and their expectation to discover extraordinary places. Majority of the new coming observers were traveled about 400-1000 km and each of them observed average 150-200 species. Most of the ecotourists utilized internet and guidebooks and came to the our country for collecting enough information about Turkey and species. A lot of observers came from Europe made their observation within 10-20 days. It is understood from the questionnaire that the foreign observers didn?t visit the Izmir Bird Heaven. The negative happenings around the Izmir Bird Heaven and advertisement deficiencies caused this phenomenon. All kind of the helpful studies should be made in order to repair these problems. Therefore, Izmir Bird Heaven will be well-known and interested by the foreign observers.