To Embed Geosites In An Area wıth Great Tourism Activity: A Proposal for Köyceğız, Türkiye

Abstract

Köyceğiz Region offers a fascinating beauty with its lakes, long sandy beaches, rivers, as well as mountains and hills covered with pine, sweetgum and mastic tree forests. Therefore, there is an intense visitor activity in the region. In addition, there are well-marked, year-round hiking and cycling routes around the mountains and lakes in Köyceğiz. On some of these routes, eco-sites have been identified and explanatory panels have been placed. However, geosites have not been identified in the region for the geological structures that carry all this ecological diversity. In fact, the Köyceğiz Region is one of the typical regions that presents geological stories from the paleotectonic and neotectonic periods together. Our proposal in this study is to select geosites on existing nature routes that reflect the geological story of the region and to develop explanatory panels for them. In this study, we have identified geosites located on nature tourism routes in the region and described their geoscientific content. By installing panels on geosites, the geo-ecological systems located on the routes will be able to explain themselves to travelers. This is a new geo-eco-tourism approach with a small budget, aimed at existing visitors in the region, without trying to attract visitors to the area.