CITTASLOW MOVEMENT: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR BRANDING SMALL TOWNS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN TURKEY

Cultural tourism is rapidly gaining widespread acceptance as a real tourist attraction and also emerging as one of the most promising areas of economic development in Turkey. On the basis of Cittaslow movement and focusing on the criteria of Cittaslow movement founded in Italy in 1999 and its possible effects on place branding which is of significant importance for cultural tourism, this study examines how cultural tourism is influential as an economic and social development vehicle in small towns in Turkey and how its local communities can benefit from it by preserving and marketing their cultural assets with the help of Cittaslow movement. The discussion critically examines and discusses the issue of the importance of place branding for cultural tourism. With this purpose, the article obtains a theoretical background to assess Turkey’s cultural tourism, its development and tourism marketing activities from various perspectives within the framework of the cultural tourism, place branding literature and Cittaslow movement. The study is of importance as Cittaslow movement has not been widely known by city marketers, tourism professionals and people of Turkey.