Evaluation of master plans with respect to cultural heritage conservation and sustainable culture tourism; case of Izmir province

The cultural accumulation of civilizations belonging to different periods of history has been left as a legacy to humanity. Cultural heritage, which also enables the culture-oriented development of tourism; It is important in terms of the recognition of the country, region or city, identity, preserving the culture and economic value. In order to protect the cultural heritage of the world countries, UNESCO included the original settlements in the list of world historical heritage; ICOMOS, Council of Europe, ICCROM etc. organizations put forward binding principles and recommendations in protecting and keeping alive this cultural heritage with international conventions and regulations. The development of cultural tourism in İzmir with its rich cultural heritage makes the areas that contain cultural heritage an attraction point and creates interaction between these areas and tourism. The aim of the study is to create a framework for holistic planning by examining the upper scale plans in line with international conventions in terms of analyzing how cultural heritage conservation and cultural tourism strategies are handled in planning. The objectives and policies in international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage and cultural tourism can form a basis for planning, as well as provide a cascade and unity that will enable different spatial-scale decisions to direct and control each other. In this context, regional-scale conservation decisions and strategies are important for integration into the rapidly growing and changing systems of cities, the development of cultural tourism and cultural heritage management. As a result of the study, a framework has been put forward through high-scale plans within the scope of regional policies and holistic planning approaches in the protection of settlements with rich cultural heritage and their evaluation through cultural tourism as a social and economic development tool.