Özet:

This study aims to facilitatean increase in competitivenessof Turkey in rural tourism by offering strategies and developing practices. Strategy setters and developers in this area as well as practitioners of rural tourism can benefit from the present study. To realize this goal global best practices in rural tourism, marketing, and promotional activities that led to increased competitiveness are analyzed utilizing relevant academic studies as well as real life examples. Specific applicationsworldwide and especially in Europe are provided within the text to offer a better insight to readers. In addition, successful applications in Turkey are also analyzed to offer comparative results on competitive rural tourism policies and best practices. As a result of the analysis several suggestions were made to increase the competitiveness in light of the best practices around the globe. First of all, educating the local communities that are associated with agro-tourism and ecotourism to increase awareness and knowledge by the support of individuals, organizations and government was proposed. In addition,identification of priority areas in rural tourism and providingsupport (financial and non-financial) by governmental institutions is offered as a basis to set a clear roadmap to increased competitiveness. In implementation stage, establishing tourism related alternative income generating activities,utilizing the accommodation potential of rural settlements,ensuring effective use of all amenities in rural destinations, and also establishing tourism associations, foundations/federations to supervise and lead the efforts in this context was proposed.This study not only presentsa base for the future researches but alsogive opportunity to assess the present state of rural tourism from rural competitiveness perspective.

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