DETERMINATION OF THE MOST SUITABLE ECOTOURISM ACTIVITIES WITH THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF BALAMBA NATURAL PARK, TURKEY

Abstract

Ecotourism can be defined as tourism conserving the existing natural and socio-cultural structure, considering the balance between conservation and utilization, promoting the sustainability of natural resources, encouraging tourism activities, and developing the economic structure of the local community. Natural parks are areas where local and foreign tourists may join ecotourism activities due to their natural and cultural landscape potentials. Balamba Natural Park (BNP) located in the city of Bartin in Turkey, was chosen as a research area due to its natural landscape values and easy accessibility. The research method is composed of the following steps; data acquirement, field analysis, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHS), Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis, evaluation of findings, and conclusion and recommendations. This study aimed to determine the most suitable ecotourism activities in the existing potentials BNP. As a result, the study concluded that ecotourism activities such as botanical tourism, trekking, photo safaris, bicycle safaris and bird/butterfly watching could be implemented in the BNP.