Özet:

In parallel to diversifying demands and expectations in the world, it is observed variation and differentiation in tourism activities. Apart from classical tourism concept, activities which are named as “alternative” and based on spending time in natural environment with natural elements have been come up more and more. Turkey has a rich potential with respect to tourism activities thanks to its natural and human-made attractions owned, and apart from activities based on sea, sun, sand mostly known as mass tourism or classical tourism, it is becoming prominent with alternative activities day by day. Execution of tourism activities further in rural areas where alternative tourism activities are intensified and incorporated great numbers of touristic attraction brings along some structural, sociocultural and economical changes and transformations in these areas. Yaylalar Village which locates in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey is one of the rural areas being example to such case. The settlement which is located on southern slopes of Kackar Mountain at 2000 m altitude continued its activities with traditional rural activities such as stockbreeding and agriculture based on stockbreeding until recently, and in the last 20 years, it has become a place where tourism activities realized. In the village where constant population decrease observed, tourism activities are based on accommodation and services based on trekking and also can be observed as residing locals living outside of the village in the village for recreation purposes in certain periods of the year. This study which was prepared in the light of survey and interview in the field is focused on functional diversification especially on tourism activities in Yaylalar Village and aims to light reasons of this functional diversification, historical development, problems, and future. Keywords: Rural Settlements, Yaylalar Village, Economical Diversification, Rural Tourism.

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