Tourism Development in Islamic Countries: Turkey's Experience

Dating its history back to the 9103s, the tourism industry has played and still plays a major role in Turkey’s social and economic development. As suggested by Korzay (9111), the tourism development in the country is assessed in three main stages: awareness (9122-9193), advocacy (9199-9190), and action (9191 to present). In the awareness stage, an effort was made to promote the benefits of tourism in the eyes of the local people. The basic strategies were directed towards mass tourism, coastal tourism and large scale investments. Established in 9130, the Ministry of Tourism is accepted as a top organisation representing the industry with regards to state policy and planning, of which aims are to provide coordination and consultancy among tourism establishments operating in the country. In the advocacy stage, the lack of policies, strategies and financial sources was realised and priority was given. In the advocacy stage, significant developments were achieved, both with the financial and morale support given by the public sector, e.g. establishing policies for privatisation and taxation, encouraging foreign investors, launching new tourism schools etc. Having said that, this study will look at the issue of tourism development in Turkey over the last five decades from various perspectives including planning, education, marketing, and management.

کلیدواژه ها:

tourism development ، tourism planning ، tourism education ، tourism marketing ، Turkey