Determination of suitable areas for ecotourism and golf tourism in Gebiz cultural and tourism conservation and development region

The diversification of tourism and extension of it to whole year has been adopted as a national policy in Turkey. In this context, ecotourism has come into the agenda in addition to golf tourism, which has been supported for many years. The Culture and Tourism Conservation and Development Areas are being declared in order for the development of tourism in Turkey and physical plans are prepared for this areas. It is of at most importance that these plans are environmentally friendly for the sustainability of tourism. Because, those tourism facilities and activities, which are done without considering the ecology of the area are potentially harmful to ecosystems and might lead to important environmental problems. The objective of this research is to determine the suitable areas for golf tourism and ecotourism, which are the intended uses for Gebiz CTCDA, in line with the conservation of natural and cultural landscapes. For golf courses, Landscape Resource Analysis and Evaluation Method and Rules technique has been used while Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is being used for potential ecotourism areas. The findings show that in case the area is planned with the approach of preserving natural and cultural landscapes, it has a capacity only for one golf course; and that it has not a high value regarding ecotourism.