Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

Öz

The improvement of the living
conditions of people and the increasing awareness about environment and nature
cause changes in approaching tourism. Particularly, demand for rural tourism
and nature tourism as its sub-branch, which aims at the economic, social and
cultural development of people living in rural areas, is increasing every day. However,
limited studies have been conducted in the Eastern Anatolia Region and in the
rural tourism of the province of Bingöl which was chosen as the study area of
the present paper, despite its significant potential in terms of natural and
cultural landscape values. The aim of the study was to analyze the landscape
characteristics of Bingöl Ilıcalar Town and to specify demands of the tourists
who visit the thermal resources and to determine the technical suitability of
these demands. The method of the study consisted of field observations,
face-to-face questionnaire-based interviews and using ArcGIS 10.4.1 program
from Geographical Information Systems to achieve technical conformity analysis.
As a result of the survey conducted with 179 visitors, maximum thermal tourism
(70.9%), also the horseback-pedestrian nature walk (54.7%), nature observation
activities (49.7%) and mountaineering (45.3%) it was preferred with high rates.
After technical analysis, it was concluded that the research area contains
suitable areas for these types of tourism and the natural landscape potential
is favorable. Therefore, it is recommended to obtain maximum benefit from
tourism by tourism planning methods which should aim at sustainable use of
natural resources, and balance between protection and use of resources must be
taken into consideration in the research area.