The city in the context of heritage and cultural tourism: An assessment on Karaman

Tourism, which has an important share among the sectors, is an experience that has been going on for centuries. In this process, humanity has turned to alternative tourism types with the perception of changing and developing tourism. Cultural tourism, which is the most popular of alternative tourism types, with its economic, social and cultural dimensions; It emerges as a tool that creates opportunities in the work of protecting cultural heritage sites, which are an indispensable part of life that documents the historical process. Innovation in tourism with globalization has carried conservation studies to different dimensions and new models have been sought. At this point, the routes have been in response to the quests and have been accepted as a system consisting of components, not singular. Routes, which provide a better understanding of cultural heritage, shape travel models in this direction, while also contributing to development by including heritage-rich but underdeveloped areas on the route. Evaluating the effects and values of the routes, which have a complex structure, can guide the policies to be implemented. In this context, "CREM", a new evaluation model, explains the current or potential values of the routes through the indicators it creates, and is considered as a leading model in designing policies that will enable the routes to reach their goals better. In the study, the province of Karaman, which has hosted more than one civilization with its multi-layered cultural structure and has a potential in the context of cultural tourism, has been selected. Many buildings from the Byzantine, Selçuk, Karamanoğulları and Ottoman Periods are reflections of Karaman's rich history. The study aims to bring the existing potentials of the settlement, which has such a wide range of historical background, to tourism. In accordance with this purpose; literature research, photographing and documentation of the area were carried out. In addition, a route proposal for the area was developed, and the opinions of experts were consulted for the evaluation of this route. Evaluations were examined within the scope of the CREM model and the current and potential location of the route was revealed. In line with these studies, a section evaluation was made and the result was reached.