The role of tourism in conservation of cultural heritage: The case of Zerzevan Castle

All kinds of tangible or intangible cultural property, which have been revealed from the beginning of mankind until now and have universal value, are accepted as the cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is a historical document that transmits information about past communities to the present. It forms an important destination point with the unique values it carries and the economic, social and cultural characteristics that people reflect to the outside world. The cultural heritage of countries which have archaeological sites containing different cultural characteristics arouse curiosity as a tourism showcase of that country. Thus, for tourists to spend time and accumulate valuable memories in those areas appear as touristic riches. From this point, besides having numerous cultural values in its every corner, Turkey has created an important potential for the tourism sector with its cultural heritage values, thanks to the importance given to tourism activities in recent times. If the tourism potential is used correctly and in a planned manner, the role of tourism is of great importance in preserving the cultural heritage, ensuring its sustainability, and increasing the level of education by raising awareness. The aim of this thesis is to reveal the role of tourism in the protection of cultural heritage within the scope of Zerzevan Castle. In addition, it is aimed to determine the protection relationship between cultural heritage resources and tourism. As a result of the literature review on cultural heritage and tourism, the importance of this study is to see the important deficiency about the tourism role of Zerzevan Castle, which is an important cultural heritage site for the Diyarbakır Region and to make up for this deficiency and to be a reference for the studies to be done. The most important reason for choosing the Zerzevan Castle as the study area for the thesis is that it is the first Mithras Temple on the eastern border of Rome and despite the scientific archaeological excavations started in 2014, it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List as of 2020, which shows the importance of this heritage site. This development creates a very important potential especially in terms of regional tourism, archeology and the visibility of the castle. Qualitative research method was used as the research method. Observations and interviews were conducted with the sample of the study, especially with the excavation head of Zerzevan Castle, experts working in the field, archaeologists, art historians, architects and restorers, the experts of Diyarbakır Museum and the participant group consisting of tourist guides operating in the region. Data were collected between 23-29 June 2021 with the semi-structured interview technique with 18 participants. The analyzes of the findings were made with the descriptive analysis technique used in qualitative research methods. As a result, cultural heritage and tourism are two main factors that affect each other positively and negatively. It has been determined that tourism and cultural heritage are managed in a controlled way, and it is seen as an important tool in protecting heritage values, transferring them to future generations, ensuring their sustainability and economic development of the region. In addition, if tourism is not managed in a planned way in heritage areas, it can cause irreversible destruction. When this conservation relationship between tourism and cultural heritage is applied with a correct and planned strategy, positive results can be obtained. Because tourism is used in the protection of heritage sites with the economic income it provides to the heritage sites, it provides employment to the people of the region and raises awareness among local people for the protection of the heritage resources in order to sustain this income. Thus, tourism has been identified as an important tool in preserving cultural heritage. It is thought that this study, which was made as a result of the findings obtained from the Zerzevan Castle, will be useful to different researches by forming a basis on the role of cultural heritage and tourism in the region.