The role of nature sports and water sports in Manavgat destination management and branding: The sample of canoe sports

Tourism sector has been rapidly developing within the global economy.This development causes an intense competition. In an increasingly competitive environment, to attract the tourists to the tourism destinations and also to spread the tourists to the season time and locality, they develop different strategies and innovations. In accordance with these strategies, destinations aim to increase their own power shots by using their own basic resources. In this respect, each destination has to offer new touristic products to increase its brand value. In recent years as a high touristic product, the potential development of the sport tourism has attracted the attention of the destinations. In this context, Canoeing which is one of the sub-branches of sport tourism and a type of alternative tourism has been choosen as a research topic. The research topic is Manavgat Destination with its appropriate nature for Canoeing. Manavgat has been primarily using sea-sand and sun tourism.This situation, on one hand, prevents the destination from revealing its potential, it makes the destination dependant on the Summer season on the other hand. This research generally not only aims to help to reveal the unique potential of Manavgat Destination, but also tries to get rid of the seasonal tourism clamp and on the other hand it aims to contribute and re-evaluate the destination as a new brand by mobilizing the potential of the region. Manavgat's natural wealth and its particular water sources can be defined as the main components of the identity of this destination. In addition to the trilogy (sea-sand-sun) that this destination already has, these values can make a difference by being self-worth of this destination. The main tourism industry of the region, can become more different than other destinations by changing the other structural characteristics. Therefore, Manavgat as a destination may have a strong brand identity. In this research, Canoeing has been considered as a nature sport and water sport so this helps to determine the role of re-creating the brand identity of Manavgat and it has been emphasized that what kind of a strategy should be improved for this aim. Due to being discussed for the first time in the area, the research has an exploratory and descriptive structure. Mainly qualitative research methods have been adopted in this research. Participant observations and interviews were made face to face so data was collected and analyzed in this research subject. Beside that, local people as an essential element in the alternative form of tourism were examined and limitations on the participation of local people in nature sports and water sports were investigated. For this purpose, teachers, as a conscious layer among the local population, have been chosen. Data was collected through the survey taken by the teachers and then analyzed. Keywords: Manavgat, Destination Management, Branding, Sports Tourism, Nature Sports and Water Sports, Canoe.