Cultural Heritage and Tourism

List of Contributors

Mustafa AR

Bilal DEVECİ

Hakan KENDİR

Mehmet TEKELİ

Sevgi ÖZTÜRK and Yasin DÖNMEZ

1 Cultural Heritage City Safranbolu

Cultural Heritage

As a result of the 32nd General Conference held by UNESCO between 29 September and 17 October 2003 in Paris, the “Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage” was accepted (Kendir et al., 2019).

The concept of cultural heritage can generally be defined as natural and cultural values that are passed down from generation to generation. It is extremely important to reveal, sustain and protect all cultural heritage values for societies.

Over time, the scope of the concept of cultural heritage has expanded and has become a concept that does not include only concrete values such as historical remains and artifacts, but also includes abstract values that are related to human life.

Material and spiritual can be thought of as the entire accumulation of human existence.

The set of values that have survived until today, covering all life processes from people’s social lives to the architectural structures they create, can be called cultural heritage (Uzun, 2020).

In order for an area to be included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List, it must meet at least one of the six cultural and three natural criteria. These criteria are:

For cultural heritage:

1.Being a high level representative of the creative genius of man,

2.To witness the human value exchanges related to important developments in the fields of architecture or technology, monumental arts, urban planning or landscape design in a cultural region or a period of the world.

3.To be an exceptional, rare representative of a living or disappearing cultural tradition or civilization.

4.An exceptional example of a building type, architectural or technological whole or landscape that represents an important stage or stages in human history.

5.It is an exceptional example of traditional human settlement, land use or sea use; representative of a culture/cultures; or human interaction with the environment; especially sensitized under the influence of irreversible change.

6.Artistic or literary works of exceptional universal significance, being directly or indirectly related to beliefs, ideas, living traditions and events.

For natural heritage:

7.Including areas with superior natural features or unique natural beauties and aesthetic importance.

8.Exceptional examples representing important stages in world history, including important geological processes or important geomorphic or physiographic features in the formation of landforms.

9.Exceptional examples presenting important ecological and biological processes on going in the evolution and development of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, and animal and plant communities, In place of biological diversity, including places containing endangered species of exceptional universal value for science or conservation. It must contain the most important and remarkable natural habitats for protection (URL-1).

After the steps taken on behalf of cultural heritage in 1972 by UNESCO cultural heritage, Turkey has started its work in the 1980s. In 1985, the historical peninsula in Istanbul, Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital, Cappadocia and Göreme National Park were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Later, Pamukkale and Hierapolis, Nemrut Mountain, Troy ancient city, Xanthos-Letoon, Hattusas, Safranbolu, Edirne Selimiye Mosque and Complex were also included in the list (Öter & Ünal, 2011).

In recent years, cultural heritage has been damaged day by day due to climatic factors, the proliferation of air pollution, industrialization, rapid urbanization, mass tourism, changes in the lifestyles of societies and economic reasons (Öztürk et al., 2019).

It should be kept in mind that since cultural heritage elements are non-renewable and irreversible, it is not possible to recreate these damaged or destroyed values. For this reason, it is an obligation and a social responsibility to carry out conservation efforts in order to pass on cultural heritage values to future generations (Sarıkaya, 2011).

Culture Tourism

With the industrial revolution, the phenomenon of globalization, which had an effect all over the world, affected the cities, architecture, eating habits and lifestyle, and led to the loss of local values.

The tourism sector is rapidly increasing its importance worldwide (Arslan et al., 2018; Tuna & Onur, 2019).

People living in the cities want to move away from the negativities of the city and head toward rural and mountainous areas, to see the natural and cultural features in these areas, to learn and experience the different life conditions in these areas.

When studies on “ecological tourism”, i.e., “ecotourism” are examined, it is seen that ecotourism is a sub-category of nature-based tourism (Dönmez et al., 2015; Göker et al., 2015).

The practice of producing the built environment has been influenced by the historical conditions of each period it has (Onur, 2018).

These and similar studies to take the opinions of the local people in order to develop sustainability and tourism in a region, which tries to cope with global warming, environmental pollution and lack of resources, have shown once again that tourism planners, professional organizations, experts, academicians, local administrations, tourism management owners, etc. offer important ideas to the masses.

Therefore, the fact that evaluations will be made on the basis of the opinions of the local people before each region is opened to tourism activities is the most basic issue that can support the solution of regional and even national-international problems (Türkmen & Dönmez, 2015; Tuna, 2020)

People have traveled from ancient times to the present for various reasons.

The first reasons for these travels are immigration, war, religion, trade, curiosity and health.

In addition, it can be said that the most important reason why people travel since ancient times is their desire to get to know cultures other than their own.

The global competition environment in the world tourism sector is getting more and more severe. It is observed that there are changes in consumption patterns in the tourism sector within the framework of the technological, economic and political changes that have emerged as a result of this (Uygur & Baykan, 2007: 30).

Since the last quarter of the 20th century, as a result of the maturation and satisfaction of the tourism industry, the desire of developing countries to increase their share in the world tourism market has increased.

As a result, besides tourism activities such as recreation, entertainment, health, sports, special interest tourism, adventure tourism, eco-tourism and cultural tourism types have emerged (Özdamar, 2011).

It can be said that the desire of tourists to see culturally rich places other than holiday tourism in the sea-sand-sun trilogy, to learn and watch the lifestyles that are about to disappear in the world, and to keep these values as a memory throughout their lives is increasing day by day.

In fact, the foundation of cultural tourism is based on various reasons. We can list these reasons as follows: seeing ancient artworks, historical buildings, museums, ancient civilizations and their remains, research, exploration and religious travel (Toskay, 1993: 156), general architectural and original features, libraries, local cuisine, festivals and fairs, theater and cinema, music and dance, language and literary studies, to get to know sub-cultures, to increase people’s knowledge and experience (Kızılırmak & Kurtulmuş, 2005: 102).