Abstract:

Thermal tourism within health tourism is a variety of tourism that covers the satisfaction of tourists' transport, accommodation, reception requirements for the use of cold and hot mineral waters for health purposes and external practices. Although there are many thermal tourism centers in Turkey, Afyonkarahisar is also an important center. Afyonkarahisar is home to a number of areas with natural and cultural values, in addition to its thermal resources. At the beginning of this area comes the Frig Valley. Frig Valley has a significant potential in terms of geotourism activities, which includes the visit of works arising from geological-geomorphological formations and geological-human relationships. In this study, the importance and necessity of the assessment of the geotourism potential of Afyonkarahisar with thermal tourism has been revealed. In this context, first the scan of literature was done, then the landwork was done. In light of these studies, the conclusion has been made that the awareness of geoturism and geoturism should be planned as a whole along with thermal tourism. Thermal tourism, a kind of health tourism, is a type of tourism which meets water, sanitation, hygiene, housing and transportation needs of people through hot and cold spring water. Along with many thermal tourism centres in Turkey, Afyonkarahisar is an important thermal tourism center as well. In addition to thermal resources, the province has natural and cultural values which are also important tourism sources. One of the prominent natural and cultural values is Frig Valley. Including visiting creations which arose as a result of geology-human relations and geological and geomorphological formations; the Frig Valley, has an important potential in terms of geo-tourism facilities. In this study, it was aimed to analyze geo-tourism potential of Afyonkarahisar province together with thermal tourism. Within this context, firstly, literature review; and later field study were carried out. In light of these studies, the results indicated that the awareness about geo-tourism needs to be raised and geo-tourism needs to be planned together with thermal tourism as a whole.