The assessment of cultural values considering touristic product diversity in contex sustainable tourism: The case of Edirne

Having been affected by technologic, economic, cultural and political changes that stem from globalization, tourism have caused a shift in the expectations of tourists, and with the increasing awareness towards environment, helped emerge a sustainable approach towards tourism, thus increasing the interest towards alternative tourism. Countries have had to diversify their touristic product in order to cope with this change and increase revenue gained from tourism. Culture tourism, one of the the applications developed as a part of this diversification, is a one of these that stems from the interest and desire to learn about a past culture. Turkey possesses a rich potential in cultural terms. Contribution of both scenic beauties and historical/cultural assets having remained to our day to this rich potential is substantial.This study examines the cultural legacy of Edirne province which hosted a number of civilizations and contains different cultures and its contribution to touristic activities. 19 people, managers in public, private sector, local government and NGO, were interviewed with face-to-face interview method asto whether the sustainability of this cultural legacy is achieved through protection of assets; and the gathered data was analyzed using content analysis method. First two sections of this study includes literature scan in order to explain concepts like touristic product, sustainable tourism, culture tourism as a touristic as touristic product and cultural legacy.