AN OUTLOOK ON WOMAN’S STATUS IN RURAL TOURISM POTENTIAL: THE CASE OF VAN HERBY CHEESE PRODUCTION

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The city of Van having tangible and intangible heritage sites, which is located at the Eastern Anatolia region, is an important tourism city. In the context of this study, the potential role of women in rural tourism development was critically evaluated. This study aims to discover the presence of women who put a lot of effort in the production of rural herby cheese, which is an important local food, but not yet being adequately considered as a touristic product. The study was conducted in four different provinces of Van, multiple case study design was employed as a part of qualitative research design. In this study, the ethnographic method and face-to-face interviews were mainly adopted to collect data on the issues related to the women who are intensive labour at every stage of the cheese-making and management process; their contributions, daily life experience, their cultural habits, the presence of cheese in their life. The findings include such differences in the role of women in the production process and in receiving benefits from economic outputs. Additionally, the women in the region affected by the socio- cultural attributes are determined their daily practices that imply the production and marketing process of cheese in the region. Finally, it has been concluded that there are still serious problems of the Van Herby Cheese (VHC) making process which seems to be having a great potential for the development of rural tourism in the region on the way of forwarding the cheese-making story into the touristic product.

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Rural Tourism , Rural Woman , Cultural Heritage , Gendering , Van Herby Cheese

International Journal of Geography and Geography Education

222

International Journal of Geography and Geography Education