Reflections of mega-activities on the city scape Formula 1 Turkey Grand Prix Istanbul Park example

Today, tourism is a very important source of income for country and city economies; and it has economical, spatial, socio-cultural and political effects. Besides the historical and natural sources in the city, the artistic and cultural activities, festivals, sports events that are organized in the city also constitute the potential tourism sources that contribute to the development of tourism. The tourism phenomenon that livens up the economic industries in the city /region it is present in and that reshapes the physical location with the fittings added to the city increases employment by developing the sub industries it is related to in service sector; and leads them according to the tourism demand.In order to take get a share from the global tourism competition and promote their name through international media, and attract more tourist and economical sources; cities are adding new tourism sources to those already present. In this context, "activity tourism" phenomenon came to life and a new competition started between cities to host events. The competition between the cities increase according to the type of event, its potential to attract tourists, the extent of the contribution it will make to city and country economy. When the cities became candidates to host an event; the process of adding new furnishings, sports facilities and infrastructure works to support these (accommodation, food & beverage locations, shopping centers etc.) to the city begins. While a long preparation awaits the cities before the "short duration" event, after the event the problem of how to use the capacity surplus furnishings and how they will affect the cityscape arise.How mega-events reflect on the cities are discussed in the international literature regarding tourism and economic studies. It is said that the negative effects of the events might increase because the cost-benefit, input-output analyses are not made adequately before the event, and it is questioned what kind of a path can be taken to alleviate these negative effects.Since the literature regarding the mega-events organized in our country is yet to be formed; the effect of events on cityscape, city economy, tourism, social structure is not adequately known. In this study; the reflections of the mega-events that increase the attractiveness of the cities are investigated with the Formula 1 Turkey Grand Prix Istanbul Park as the example. With this scope, the study makes an important contribution to filling the gap on mega-event literature in our country.While the candidateship process for Olympic Games continues for our country, events like Formula 1 Grand Prix, Europe Soccer Championship etc. are being organized. It can be seen that an "event management and strategy" is applied before, during and after the organized events. The events that transcribed between the central government, local administration and private entrepreneurs during Istanbul's candidateship for F1 and for the duration that F1 was organized clearly display the lack of city strategy and event management. Istanbul worked towards having the F1 organized in the city before 2002, started hosting the event in 2005 and faced the risk of losing the event in 2009.This study is composed of five main chapters. The introduction chapter contains the literature summary, the purpose of the thesis, hypothesis and the research method. The second chapter discussed the phenomena of tourism, branding and mega-event, and the reflections of mega-events to economy, tourism, cityscape, social and political structure is evaluated with respect to related literature. The emergence of F1 as a mega-event, its spread on global scale and F1's reflection on cityscape are also discussed in this chapter. In the third chapter; the tourism potential of Istanbul metropolitan area is evaluated and the importance of F1 among the events organized in the city is told. Also, within this chapter, the realization process of Istanbul Park and the actors that played a role in this process are discussed. In the fourth chapter, the investments that were developed around Istanbul Park are studied and the reflections of F1 on Istanbul cityscape is evaluated, and the effect of F1 on tourism is tried to be determined, based on the perceptions of the visitors who attended F1. In chapter five; within the light of the information acquired from literature regarding mega-events and the results obtained within the scope of the thesis; the reflections of F1 mega-event on Istanbul cityscape is presented. Conclusions are reached that if the mega-events and event investments are developed towards city strategies in Istanbul, a city that gradually gains importance in the global tourism market, the negativities that are observed on the cityscape can be alleviated.