Cultural heritage as a sustainable area: tyana archeological site

Most of the cultural studies show that culture and tourism can be resources for social and financial development of a place. Culture is becoming an increasingly important factor in international policies regarding tourism.This is observed that the spreading rate of tourism activities has increased, especially thanks to the activities carried out by the segments with high socio-economic income level to develop their own culture, and today it contınues to increase with the effect of communication networks. The positive and negative results of this increase are evaluated in terms of sustainability. It is seen that approaching cultural heritage elements only economically, applying wrong policies actually threatens to destroy the resources. It should not be forgotten that nowadays, when tourism is shifting from popular areas to some more untouched historical and cultural areas, the main purpose is the need to protect resources, which is the reason for the emergence of the concept of sustainability. In this thesis, the archaeological excavation site of Tyana, located in Kemerhisar town of Bor district of Niğde province, was examined within the scope of sustainable tourism. A survey study aimed at bringing the archaeological excavation site to tourism was analyzed with the opinions of local people and experts. It is aimed to consider the Tyana archaeological excavation site, which bears traces of the Roman period, as a cultural heritage and to evaluate the area as a sustainable tourism product of the region.