Evaluation of recreation areas created in the framework of urban transformation in terms of tourism

Globalization has increased the participation of people in travels by increasing leisure time, changing the quality of life, removing borders as well as change people's travel behaviors. Nowadays people are traveling for a variety of reasons, such as visiting a large number of destinations in a short period of time, participating in cultural and artistic activities in the regions, resting, having fun and being renewed. Mega cities such as Istanbul attract tourists with their geographical location, historical and cultural values, business and financial centers, international congress and fair organizations, infrastructure and transportation. The historical heritage of Istanbul needs a sustainable urban transformation scheme in order to advance new investments in an integrated dimension to this texture, to increase the quality of life without deteriorating urban culture and to increase international tourism incomes. In recent years, Istanbul has been trying to keep pace with this process through intensive urban transformation studies that include tourism and recreation areas. Urban transformation has evolved from one-sided to multi-faceted action by the year 2000. Nowadays, urban transformation is being carried out in order to plan the cities which are becoming human-focused, sustainable, visionary, growing, developing living organisms in addition to providing disaster and risk zones improvement and renewal. Considering changing and developing tourist behaviors and recreational needs of people, the first part focuses on recreation related concepts, tourism and recreation relation. In the first part of the second part, definitions related to the concept of urban transformation are given. In the second part, the data obtained as a result of interviews with the responsible units and persons and the completed and planned urban transformation projects for Istanbul are examined. In the third part, the successes of these conversions are evaluated by measuring the service quality perception of the tourist in terms of tourism and recreation.