Creative-based tourism development in small scale towns: a case of Alaçati

Abstract

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, 13-16th July, 2015Today, tourism has rapid expansion with the term of globalization (Hall and Page, 2003). Globalization offers technological innovations in transport, communication and information spreading around the world and it also reduces borders and barriers for culture exchange. Tourism development has been viewed as an opportunity for economic development of many destinations. In spite of the fact that negative impacts embodied in rapid development of tourism based on globalization process. Many tourism areas are in danger of mass tourism that consume sensitive landscapes and characteristics of settlements (Endresen, 1999). In that sense, the new phenomenon of creativity including various concepts such as creative economy, creative class, creative industries, creative clusters and creative tourism comes out as a driving force to contribute development of tourism (Florida, 2002; Landry, 2000; Richards, 2011). For this study, small scale towns, which have a risk of substantial losses of their cultural values, landscapes and way of life due to the rapid development of tourism, is examined in terms of creative-based tourism development. In this context, an urban design approach is defined as a tool that has a hand in guiding creative tourism development. Moreover, urban design toolkit which has various methods and techniques is used for fostering and understanding creative environment of Alaçati, which is small Turkey. Ultimately, the study investigates creative environment of the small-scale town for understanding the dynamics between creativity and tourism in the context of sustainable development.Published Versio