Assessment of the faith tourism potential of Manisa province by stakeholders

In this study, it was aimed to determine strong-weak and threatopportunities of Manisa province in regard to faith tourism and to reveal the problems of faith tourism and their solutions. In accordance with this purpose, firstly, the literature was reviewed. Then, responses to the questions which were determined in literature review were collected by using interview technique which is a qualitative research method. Interviews were carried out face to face with 50 people who work in public institutions, private instutions, local administrations, non-governmental organizations, who are local people, tradespeople and tour guides. Evaluation of the answers given to the interview questions was done with content analysis. As a result of this analysis, 9 main themes and 120 sub themes were determined. In consequence of this content analysis; that Manisa province is home to important tombs, mosques and lodges used by Mevlevi dervishes because of its being among the cities where sultan's sons govern sanjak during Ottoman period and because of being the capital city in Saruhan Beylic era, that it hosts three of the churches which are nominated as the first seven churches of Christianity and mentioned in The Bible and that it hosts Mesir Paste Festival are the strong sides of faith tourism in Manisa. However, lack of publicity, lack of infrastructure and superstructure, inadequate academic studies on faith tourism, unprotected religious works and local people's knowledge deficiency about religious works are the weak sides of faith tourism. Furthermore, while an increase in religious orientation all over the world, Turkey's becoming more conservative and a result of this an adulation to political power, shortening the distance between İzmir and Manisa because of the tunnel project between these two cities were the mentioned opportunities; intense migration, terror, refugees, Syria War, July 15 coup attempt, Fettullah Terror Organisation (FETÖ/PDY) problem and the economic crisis were the mostly mentioned threat risks. In this study, the problems of faith tourism determined in Manisa are: the renovation process of Islamic Works which belong to foundations is long, there are not environmental plannings for religious works, excavation works take a long time, illicit digs, illegal and unplanned housing, qualified personnel shortage. On the other hand, that their organizing a theatre festival in the ancient city of Sart and the symphony orchestra's giving an open air concert in that city, their organizing symposiums, publishing books, journals and brochures and making websites to publicise faith centers, environmental planning in the faith tourism centers and doing restoration projects are the works that carried out by local administrations, public institutions and private institutions to improve the faith tourism in Manisa province. Key Words: Faith tourism, Faith, Religion, Manisa