An Evaluation of Reciprocal Impacts of Culture and Tourism within Communication Framework in North Cyprus (A Case Study)

Although it is commonly accepted that the fields of tourism and communication are two areas which lack no research, the same cannot be said about their relationships and inter-impacts. This thesis was conceived as a result of this inadequacy and intended to rectify the situation by probing into this rather complex but relatively virgin area. The contention is that the cultural studies undertaken within the context of communication theory for a very long time, for some reasons, have not been used until very recently and then only peripherally by the researchers as well as the policy-makers of tourism. The question of the research being staying behind the practice in this respect therefore was relevant to discuss as we looked at the practice and theory of both. To focus our attention further we turned into a case study which proved both convenient and rational. North Cyprus proved very generous in manifesting many serious issues discussed theoretically by various researchers but not applied to or examined in the real-life situations. This was an evident gab and formed part of the hypothesis of this study as well. Finding out the state of tourism and the impact and magnitude of culture within it provided us with opportunities for comparisons of all types. In order to do so we explored and discovered qualitative method to be most appropriate for our purpose. The actual data collected were information, views and opinions of the insiders of tourism and communication, extracted from long semi-structured interviews from top ten representatives which included academics as well as practitioners. The results were classified and utilized using matrix analysis approach. The emergent conclusion was very clear. There is a close relationship between the culture and tourism and their cross impacts are gaining more importance and prominence. In many parts of the world cultural tourism presented itself as serious alternative to mass tourism but required further investigations to convince the policy-makers of its contribution to sustainable development at large and tourism in particular. North Cyprus was no exception in this respect and in fact provided a significant prerequisite for it namely cultural heritage. Furthermore insiders‟ data presented that an integrated tourism approach would provide better results for places like North Cyprus which can be taken as a representative of other similar small island states economically dependent on tourism development.