Abstract
A Swot Analysis of Alternative Tourism Potential of Sinop Province
Alternative tourism, which is used to define small-scale projects based on local population, is different than mass tourism depending on sea, sun and sand seen since 1970s. One of the most important economic activities is tourism in Sinop that is positioned as city of culture, tourism and education. Due to short summer season, current tourism activities limit the development of city depending on tourism. However, Sinop has an enormous tourism potential thanks to it untouched nature, national parks, lakes, caves, wild life, cultural and archaeological values with 5.000 years history. This study conducted semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders to assess the alternative tourism potential and destinations of city. Following, a SWOT analysis was developed based on the date derived from interviews. According to the tourism stakeholders, Sinop has a potential to become an important destination for alternative tourism types such as cultural tourism, rural tourism and sports tourism. However, the city is not able to realise this potential sufficiently due to lack of coordination between tourism stakeholders and especially infrastructure and urban transportation problems. Finally, suggestions depending on both the results of SWOT analysis and data of interviews are proposed to develop alternative tourism of city.
Keywords
Sinop, Alternative Tourism, Rural Tourism, Nature Tourism, SWOT Analysis