مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - An Evaluation of the Potential of the City of Antalya to Become Part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network

Abstract :

Today, creativity is considered a strategic factor in sustainable tourism management. Creative tourism comprises more educational, emotional, social and the participants’ interaction between destination, culture and people. While developing creative tourism, the local population and the destination managers in the regions are able to further develop, to regard creativity as a region’s resource and to evaluate the opportunities to answer the tourists’ increasing requirement for new experiences. This research attempts to explain what the tourism creative process should look like, and what should be done in respect to creative tourism of cities within the scope of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Firstly a review of the literature on creativity in tourism and UNESCO Creative Cities Network was made. Documentation representing an example of the application of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network practices was found on the Internet and analysed. In the second part of this research, the important tourism destination of Antalya was chosen as a case study and research about what and, how that what should be done, within the tourism creativity process and its application was undertaken. The qualitative method was used in this research. Data derived from documentation analysis and from interviews was evaluated through the content analysis method. In conclusion it was emphasized that this research may provide significant information for all stakeholders and institutions involved in both tourism destination planning and application.