Abstract:

The festivals, which are important events in the promoting of cultural values, the creation of cultural heritage and the transfer to the next generations, are also an effective tool in the promotion of a city, the creation of image and reputation, the branding and the creation of demand and marketing by attracting the interest of the media. Festivals are placed as an important tool in the field of public relations as a type of event. When the literature is studied, the works on festivals are mostly considered as a type of activity in the tourism field. In this study, festivals are first considered as a public relations tool used in local governments. The main problem of the research is how the festivals organized by local governments are used as a means of public relations. For this purpose, five provinces from five separate regions of Turkey have been determined, festivals traditionally organized by the local governments of these provinces have been determined and studied by the method of content analysis. When the results of the study were examined, it was observed that the festivals were not carried out by public relations units by local governments and that public relations were not planned under the four-step rule.

Keywords: