Mount Erciyes and sports tourism: A study to evaluate the current situation

Abstract

In the changing and developing world, people's needs and requests have also begun to vary, and this situation has given the opportunity for the emergence of alternative tourism types on the basis of the tourism sector. Sports tourism, on the other hand, has emerged as an alternative tourism type that includes the active or passive participation of individual or group participants in different branches as a niche market. In this research, it is aimed to evaluate the potential of Mount Erciyes in terms of sports tourism and to present guiding knowledge for sector and public representatives. In this direction, prioritization was made with the SWOT analysis through interviews with fourteen stakeholders in the region, and then with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in line with the findings obtained. Accordingly, it has been determined that Mount Erciyes has strengths and opportunities such as accessibility and being in the Cappadocia Region, as well as weaknesses and threats such as insufficient infrastructure and increased competition. In addition, it has been seen that global competition is a threat to destination, but accessibility is the most important criteria to gain a competitive advantage.