Cultural Tourism

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Cultural Tourism 3

3. Where Can Cultural Tourism Be Found 3

4. Resources Required in Cultural Tourism 4

5. Businesses, Suppliers and Partners in Cultural Tourism 4

6. Target Audience 5

7. How it is attractive 5

8. Challenges and Issues 6

9. Possible Solutions 7

References 8

1. Introduction

Cultural tourism is the topic that will be discussed on and the country of choice is Turkey. The resources, businesses, suppliers and partners that are involved with cultural tourism along with the issues and challenges faced by the Turkish tourism board will be outlined and highlighted.

2. Cultural Tourism

Cultural tourism is about the country or the region's culture. To better define it, it means the lifestyle of the people in those specified areas, their history, art, architecture, religions and many other elements that helped shape their way of life. Tourists often sign up for cultural tours because they can learn and witness what is seemingly usual for the locals but unusual for them. The way some parts of the world live, historical sites and artifacts makes touring interesting.

3. Where Can Cultural Tourism Be Found

Cultural tourism can be found in many parts of the world, almost all the countries have retained some of their culture heritage. However, certain destinations like Cambodia and Bhutan are less modernized, fewer interactions with the outside community and is richer in their culture and traditional ways.

In Turkey, cultural tourism can be found in urban areas where cultural facilities such as museums and theatres are being situated. These urban areas might be a historical town or where monuments exist. For example, the Asiyan Museum in Istanbul, showcasing the art and poetry culture.

Cultural tourism can also be found in rural areas of Turkey, where most often is the richest in cultural values and lifestyle. It best shows the traditions of the indigenous cultural communities and their festivals or rituals. For example, in the southeastern part of Anatolia, families come together to celebrate their son's circumcision .

4. Resources Required in Cultural Tourism

The resources that are required in delivering cultural tourism consists of mainly the cultural attractions and artifacts. For example, in Mevlâna Mausoleum, Konya, Turkey, this is where they showcase collections of old Qur'ans, extremely valuable prayer rugs and a box containing the holy beard of Prophet Muhammad. They tell tourists about their Islamic beliefs, values and way of life. There is also the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, where locals actually do their prayers, tourists can witness praying sessions and experience this culture difference.

Another important resource is their cultural dance performance, wedding ritual dance, belly dance and the sema dance. These resources shape the lifestyles of locals and are vitally essential in delivering culture tourism.

5. Businesses, Suppliers and Partners in Cultural Tourism

There are several businesses that are crucial in delivering cultural tourism, in fact without these businesses, any form of tourism wouldn't be possible. Firstly would be transportation, there must be transportation taking the tourist from their traveller generating region to the destination region whether by air, sea or ground. There must be lodging, from superstructures like hotels to camping spots. Food and beverage business is important, local cuisine would be ideal for cultural tourism, however, a tour cannot continue without basic food service. A cultural tour would definitely need cultural attractions to be in place for tourist to visit.

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