Using of recreational outdoor sports in Turkish rafting application in Antalya Köprülü Kanyon

ABSTRACTParticipation fact to sportive activities, which has been one of the indispensables ofour today?s life, has found application areas within or out of the city and has started to attractattention with its positive effect to the lives of individuals. Also, the sportive activities withrecreational purpose to increasingly become a tourism variety and tourism to be within therecreational activities provide positive contributions for varying the tourism.In this study, a sample application has been examined regarding to time, the leisuretime that the individuals use for themselves within the life time, recreation, sports and outdoorsports as the usage of their leisure time in a way they want and most efficiently, what kind ofa role these concepts have in recreation and tourism, the relations between tourism andrecreation and how the outdoor sports with recreational purpose are used within tourism eventtoday. The information received as a result of the survey been carried out in the interviewswith the managers of companies offering rafting service has been analyzed.It?s been found that the companies displaying activity in Köprülü Kanyon NationalPark, which has been determined as the application area, are generally offering raftingservices, that all companies bring approximately 350.000 tourists in average in the season andthat they insure these tourists during their activities, that they generally have Turkish tourguides, that the materials given to the tourists are in accordance with European safetystandards and that their operation season is 7-8 months in average.Also, the problem and worries, recommendations and expectations of the companiesdisplaying activity in this field have been investigated and recommendations on how thisrafting, an outdoor sports application with recreational purpose, and Köprülü KanyonNational Park would be organized in a way they will be better, more productive and for thebenefit of the country are made.Keywords : Recreation, Tourism, Sport, Outdoor Sports, Rafting