Abstract:

The tourism industry is closely related to many sectors. In recent years, developments in alternative tourism areas, in addition to mass tourism, have started to appear significantly. In tourism activities in rural areas, local cuisine, cultural interaction, the direction from the city to the rural areas with the purpose of resting opens the door to developments in different areas. One of them is the tourism activity called olive tourism or olive oil tourism. In this context, the oil and olive oil tourism in the Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy, where the oil production and consumption culture are high as Turkey, is still an important income-powered alternative tourism activity and this situation represents a great potential for Turkey. Turkey is among the top five countries in the world in terms of oil and olive oil production. More than half of the number of Turkey olive trees is in the Ege region, and more than 20% of the olive areas in the Ege region are in Muğla. Two-thirds of the olive areas of Muğla province are located in the Milas province. In addition, Milas is a settlement with the most olive areas in Turkey on the basis of the district. There is a potential for the development of olive tourism. Also, Milas has the potential to be a niche market with olive tourism. In this study, we discussed the olive tourism potential and evaluation possibilities for supporting rural development in the district of Milas. Again, the world’s examples have also been taken into account and recommendations have been presented on what needs to be done in the development of olive tourism in the district.