Recreation demands of Gi̇resun residents, determining the recreation potentials of ecotourism resources in the urban and near surroundings

Excessive industrialization, urbanization and alienation from natural life, which occurred as a result of the industrial revolution, caused problems in the ecological balance. Stress and fatigue caused by human-based work resources in the society increased participation in recreational activities that existed before and made it a necessity.We see the closest example of this with the difficulties we experienced as we closed to homes in the Covid-19 virus epidemic that surrounded the whole world in 2020. The fact that recreation is so important in our daily life requires diversification of these recreational activities in areas. For this reason, it is necessary to know the potentials of open spaces suitable for recreation and the performance values to be provided with the capacity of this potential. This study was carried out in Giresun, which is famous for its plateau and vegetarian cuisine in our Eastern Black Sea region. Because Giresun is one of the provinces shown in the livable geography, which is predicted to decrease in number due to global climate change. Giresun nature is shown as one of the important destinations of the future with the variety of recreation and tourism activities it offers every season. It owes this feature to its nature to a large extent, and the nature of Giresun should definitely be included in tourist activity with a sustainable tourism understanding. One of the indispensable works we need to do in order to protect nature is to determine the recreational potential. The Gülez method is almost the only method used in our country to determine the recreational potential. In this respect, we preferred to use the Gülez method as the basic scale in our study. In the city of Giresun, Giresun Castle, Giresun Island and Giresun Gedikkaya recreation area, which are among the urban recreation areas most preferred by the public and whose recreational potentials have not been studied until now, have been determined to be studied. A face-to-face survey was conducted with 390 participants in these selected areas to determine their recreational demands. These survey data were used in the preparation of "recreation area capacity and performance analysis" with basic statistical procedures after the reliability analysis. The recreational potential, capacity and performance values of the areas are respectively found for Giresun Castle; 73%, 85%, 50% for Giresun Island, 61%, 46%, 8%, and for Gedikkaya, 63%, 72%, 19%. Considering this value, Kale, which is visited by Giresun residents and almost every tourist coming to Giresun, and engages in recreational activities, is seen as "high" in potential, "very good" in capacity and "medium" in performance. Giresun Island's recreational potential is "high", its capacity is "medium", and its performance is "very low". Gedikkaya, on the other hand, was found to be "high" in terms of potential and capacity, and "very low" in performance. These data show that although there is potential and capacity in all three areas, the recreational opportunities that the society expects to be offered have not been offered sufficiently. In other words, the level of performance expected by the public could not be reached. The Gülez method was prepared under the conditions of the 1990s. In other words, the variety of activities performed by the people as recreation today was not widespread or did not exist at all in those years. Therefore, the scales that make up the Gülez method and their sub-propositions are not rich enough to meet today's recreational expectations and its revision should definitely be considered. Keywords: Recreation Potential, Gülez Method, Giresun Island, Giresun Castle, Giresun-Gedikkaya, Recreation Capacity and Recreation Performance