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Abstract. The aim of the study is to identify the areas that might serve as ecotourism focuses in the Samandağ coastal zone and its surroundings, located on the southern border of Turkey, and to develop an optimum ecotourism route. The methodology used is Ecotourism Opportunity Spectrum (ECOS). The methodology is comprised of three stages. In the first stage areas that can serve as ecotourism focuses have been identified. In the second stage ECOS method has been applied to the identified focuses. In this regard, 10 criteria and 40 sub-criteria that determine the level of suitability for identifying an ecotourism route have been identified. Both these criteria and the sub-criteria have been scaled and ecotourism opportunity spectrum value has been determined for each criterion. According to these calculations, the highest ecotourism opportunity spectrum value is 400. In the study, the focus that is closest to this value is considered as the most suitable for identifying an ecotourism route according to the planning criteria. As a result of the study, Samandağ coastal zone and its surroundings has very high importance with respect to preserving, planning and development of the resources with a sustainable approach. In this area, 20 focuses have been identified for being used for ecotourism. The highest spectrum value calculated by applying this method is 271.86 and it belong to Vakıflı focus, while the lowest spectrum value is 136.92 for the Milleyha focus.

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