Özet:

Iznik, an important settlement since prehistoric times, is a city of history, culture and tourism. Iznik was valuable for tourism because it is the capital of four civilizations, two important councils for Christianity were held here and it bears Seljuk and Ottoman traces. The people who present and narrate this heritage are the tourist guides. This study, therefore, evaluated the SWOT analysis of Iznik tourism from the tour guides’ perspective. The tourist guides were interviewed about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Iznik tourism. In addition, the tourist guides were asked two additional questions: “What kind of tourism can be developed in Iznik?” and “What are your suggested solutions for tourism in Iznik?” As part of the study, telephone interviews were conducted with 68 tourist guides using the qualitative research method between June 1 and June 30, 2023. The results of the interviews were content analyzed in the MAXQDA 2022 program. As a result of the interviews, the code “History” ranked first among the strengths of Iznik tourism, and the code “Physical environmental problems” ranked first among the weaknesses. Among the opportunities of Iznik tourism, “proximity of historical points in Iznik” ranks first, while “illegal tour guides” ranks first among the threats. The tour guides stated that faith tourism should be developed in Iznik. In addition, another result of the survey is that more emphasis should be placed on promotional activities and more tours to Iznik should be organized.