Development of historical cities as a tourism destination the case of Safranbolu

There has been a rapid change in the tourism types and tourist demands in the last two decades. Besides conventional tourism activities, new tourism activities that incorporated into cultural, historical and environmental elements, have emerged in the world. The destinations that give priority to these issues and give precedence historical and cultural texture over others are increasingly being more popular and can make its presence felt in tourism phenomenon.In the first part of our study, the terms destination and destination marketing are discussed and in the second part the relationship between historical city and destination is examined within the extent of literature review. In the third part of the study, which, includes field research, The historical city of Safranbolu has been tried to examined in terms of supply and demand, considering different aspects of both, through two different surveys. In this respect, how domestic and foreign tourists perceive both historical-touristic and overall image of tourism of the city has been examined in the first survey. In the second survey, we have tried to make out what the recommendations and thoughts of the hotels in the historic city center are with respect to the historical-touristic destination. The common purpose of these two surveys is to determine the strengths of the city such as its being included in the World Heritage List, having different types of tourism and having a high density of touristic demand as well as the weaknesses of the city such as lack of publicity and marketing of touristic areas, inefficiency of public-private sector in tourism development and not having air travel in order to market it as a better historical and touristic destination.The results of the study have indicated that the period of stay of the tourists are short, the tourism has a seasonal aspect, diversity of tourism activities is not enough and the collaboration between the private and public sectors is not enough satisfactory to develop tourism. Moreover, it has been concluded that touristic-historical originality of the city is positively perceived by the tourists themselves.Key Words: Destination, Destination Marketing, Historical City and Tourism, Safranbolu