The place and the importance of tourism in Turkey economy: A case study of Mardin

Tourism can be defined as all of the economic activities that people make by using the services (accommodation, refreshments) of touristic institutions where they visit to meet their needs such as sport, religion, health, travel, entertainment, recreation etc, except the places where they normally/always live and earn money. The important point in this definition which shouldn?t be disregarded is the principle of people that they do not pursue a goal to earn money where they go.Prosperity, improvement of the level of education and culture, increase of leisure times, developments in technology, especially in the technology of transportation and communication, development of advertisement services, urbanization, increase of population and social mobility, and changes in political structure are the factors providing tourism to be arisen.The developed and developing countries, as from the middle of the 20th century, have started to attach specific importance to the investments made in tourism as it provides foreign exchange earnings relatively at a high level, its employment/ investment ratio is big and it contributes to the improvement and prosperity of other sectors with positive externalities.Tourism, contribution of which to the improvement of the sectors of agriculture, industry and service is used as an economic policy to reduce the economical problems seen in unemployment and balance of payment and to surpass bottlenecks, is known to have highly positive effects on socio-economical developments.That there are plenty of natural and historical artifacts in our country, especially on the rural regions that own very little share from the national income enables culture tourism to be developed. Mardin, in this respect, is a very rich city with its historical places. In the event that it is sufficiently supported in public expenditures, the local community will be recovered in terms of level of income; besides, it will help a solution be found for unemployment, one of the biggest problems, and contribute to the improvement of its economy.Recently, there have been noticeably investments in Mardin in order to develop tourism.However, considering it?s historical and natural potential,investments in Mardin are seen not to be enough,thus tourism hasn?t reached to the place that it deserves.