Seeking new approaches for tourism along the Mediterranean
1995
Sozen, N. (Faculty of Agriculture. Dep. of Lanscape Architecture, Ankara (Turkey))
So far our attitude toward handling and organizing tourism has been quite primitive thus needs questioning. Instead of taking this process as an integrated system, all we did was to focus only on short-term monetary profit. That is why avoiding all the unique values, which can hardly be rated on the basis of such kind of profit, resulted in degradation. Irreplaceable pieces of natural and cultural heritage have been sacrificed for short-sighted benefits. Although the whole Mediterranean Region seems to share similar features, the diversity and variety from one country to the other, from north to south and from west to east due to ecological, social, cultural and other factors which in combination are the main reasons of uniqueness within each-sub region have been forgotten. As a result of this attitude when Mediterranean coasts are considered the major attractions remained as beaches, sun, a little bit of cultural interest by means of archaeological sightseeing to follow the fashion very often ignoring the present day's culture, authenticity and more important than that, the existence of local people, their tradition and folklore. Such an approach created the phenomenon of today all around Mediterranean which we don't like to see, but we don't also do much to change or stop. As long as the trend continues for standardising everything this degradation and destruction seems to continue. The time has come for us to see and understand the mistake has been made to accept tourism as a pollution-free sector. We need a proper revision to correct this misunderstanding, because tourism does harm and pollute natural, cultural and social environment as much as other activities and perhaps more in some cases and undoubtedly on at a larger scale.
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