Abstract:

Situated approximately 7 km far from the center of Siirt province in the northeast, Tillo (Aydınlar) county particularly draws attention of Turkish visitors due to its natural and cultural characteristics. However, it doesn’t receive enough attention because of certain shortcomings. Considerable tourism areas of the county include geomorphologic surface suitable for paragliding and rafting, magnificent landscape, scientific laboratory and museum of İbrahim Hakkı, historical Tillo Cas houses as well as mausoleums of many other scholars. Despite its rich potential, some obstacles are worth noting as they block development of tourism in the county such as not figuring out the tourism potential and promotion of the county satisfactorily, leaving the historical and authentic buildings untouched ruins, not totally discovering its natural attraction centers, and lack of investment in accommodation, resort and transportation facilities. This study details the culturel tourism potential of Tillo county and describes the profile of the tourists in this county. Also shortcomings in that area were found by means of questionnaire, interviews and field trips, and a tourist attraction map was prepared to help those visiting Tillo. Study results show that Tillo is visited by nearly 30 thousand people every year most of whom come from metropolitan cities and can afford touristic expeditions. Taking into consideration the number and profile of visitors, tourism planning in Tillo is anticipated to both boost the local economy and contribute to preservation of the cultural and touristic assets.Keywords: Tillo, cultural tourism, religion tourism, planning, tourism profile.

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