Alternative Tourism in Turkey

Abstract

Popular Turkish media products, such as films and TV soap operas, are becoming new phenomena in Turkey and abroad that parallel Turkey’s growing economy as well as the opening of sociocultural and political policies to its neighbors and beyond. To many, this geography of connected nations corresponds to Turkey’s Ottoman history and the geography of cultural similarities. This, of course, opened a new window of possibilities for Turkey and Turkish popular culture to reconnect geographies that had been ignored for a long time. Turkey, for the first time in its entire history, has a chance to present itself to the people who live outside of its borders directly via cultural productions that are primarily intended for local consumption. As a consequence, such cultural reconnection with a ‘not so different people’ helped to strengthen Turkey’s soft power around its immediate geographies and helped promote Turkey’s sociocultural values and traditions abroad. In return, Turkey’s popularity as a tourist destination expanded and the number of tourists coming to Turkey increased year after year. This paper aims to investigate to what extent growing popularity of Turkish cultural products influenced Turkey’s positive image abroad and helped to boost the number of tourists coming to Turkey. Additionally, what role do Turkish TV soap operas and films play in touristic mobilities, especially from the Mediterranean region (including Balkans and the Middle East) to Turkey, and what kind of geocultural bearings of these touristic mobilities have imposed on the hosting society and on the tourists’ country of origin? And, finally, what are the possible dynamics of these touristic mobilities?