Importance of plateau culture in plateau tourism: Rize sample

The purpose of this research is to determine the role of plateau culture in plateau tourism. According with this purpose, a questionnaire is used to 390 local tourists in Çamlıhemşin/Ayder and İkizdere/Anzer plateaus where are announced as ?Plateau Tourism Center? by Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In order to investigate empirical findings, multiple cohesion analysis is used with the help of SPSS PASW 18 statistical program. Beside this analyze frequency and arithmetic means of the mentions of the questions are also analyzed and presented.According to findings, the local tourists who have their vacations in Çamlıhemşin/Ayder and İkizdere/Anzer are mostly between 18-29 ages, high school and university graduate and single males. Most of these peoples either born in Marmara Region or Rize and also live in Marmara and Karadeniz Region. These people come to plateaus for recreation, amusement, natural beauty, sports, and adventure. Their travel alters as personal, tour with guidance, family and/or friends.These local tourists mostly prefer excursions and stay for a few day or more than a week. The people who prefer accommodation stay in their own plateau house, three star hotels, tenting or camping trailer. They visit the historical places and buy local merchandise for gift also. Most of these local tourists who prefer those plateaus for vacation have no plateau tourism experience before. But some of them have been in Rize Plateaus and contributed to touristic activities according to the findings.The tourists who come to Çamlıhemşin/Ayder and İkizdere/Anzer Plateaus find architecture, interior and exterior design of plateau house and hotels, ingredients and service of food and beverage authentic. Similarly; clothes, instruments and tools of local residents are found as appropriate to traditional culture. Also; dance, music, game, festivals, food and beverages, interior end exterior design of mosques, name of stores, handcrafts and souvenirs are thought that they represent the daily life of the plateau residents.