Visitor Comments about Botanic Parks and Gardens in the Context of Botanical Tourism

Abstract

Botanical parks and gardens present different natural beauties together and allow the recognition of flora varieties. Within the scope of botanical tourism, botanical parks and gardens constitute one of the important visiting points of tourists. In this study, visitor comments on botanical parks / gardens are analyzed. Qualitative research method was used in the study. The study data consists of visitor comments on TripAdvisor website for "Ankara Botanical Park", "Atatürk Botanical Park", "Gaziantep Botanical Park", "Karaca Botanical Garden" and "Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanical Garden" in Turkey between May 2014 and November 2020. In the study, when the visitor's comments were evaluated, it was concluded that the comments on the botanical parks and gardens consisted of panoramic, peaceful / relaxing, lush place, nostalgic, natural wonder, tree museum codes. In addition to these, it was concluded that activities such as walking and sports, picnics, photographing, viewing the scenery, resting, and obtaining information about flora can be done by visitors in these parks and gardens.

Blossoming Insights: A Bibliometric Review of Botanical Gardens’ Research Across Time (1960-2023)

“…They are increasingly integrating with other urban green areas [25,11], allowing visitors to connect with nature and explore plant diversity in a peaceful, immersive environment. Additionally, botanical gardens significantly promote ecotourism and sustainable tourism practices, highlighting their importance today [26,27]. These gardens cater to various visitor motivations, including stress relief and social interaction, as demonstrated by research conducted on American gardens, which observed therapeutic effects [28,29,30,31].…”