Tourism activities and improvement opportunities in Kadıköy

Tourism activities are the applications of the tourism sector on the venue, which attracts great attention due to their significant economic benefits. It has made a rapid progress especially after the Second World War. Tourism and tourism activities provide great economic contributions to developing countries as well as to all countries. While closing the bugdet deficits of countries economically, providing foreign currency inflow; on the other hand, it also creates new job opportunities and contributes to regional and national development. Besides, it is possible to gain insight about the development level of the country's economy, by looking at its tourism activities. The tourism sector has taken its place among the rapidly developing sectors by the communication of local and central administrations as a result of the investments of national and international companies. One of the most important centers of Istanbul Province, which has rich historical and cultural resources, is Kadıköy district. The district stands out with its historical, cultural and various touristic attractions and has venues that contain within themselves high tourism potential and opportunities. Especially, determining the existing tourism activities and researching development opportunities in Kadıköy, which is frequented by most of the tourists who come to Istanbul for touristic reasons, constitute the basis of our study. Within the scope of tourism geography, we approach from a geographical point of view, firstly the purpose and method of our study and then the geographical location of our field of study, and the effects of our field of study on tourism activities; general, physical, human and economic geography features are discussed and its develop ability is emphasized. In the study area, historical-cultural and natural attractions are identified and defined, and sustainable tourism activities have been put forward. Finally, it was interpreted by performing swot analysis and predictions were made prospectively. It is emphasized that Kadıköy should be tourisim oriented a brand city. Generally, it is foreseen that the sustainable tourism potential of Kadıköy District can be increased with the suggestions that can improve the current situation, and it can become one of the leading and important tourism centers with its branding trend thanks to its existing opportunities in the field of tourism. Keywords: Kadıköy District, Tourism and Tourism Geography, Tourism Attractions, Tourism Types, Recreation Activities, Opportunities