Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies, cilt.4, sa.3, ss.53-65, 2016 (Hakemli Dergi)
Tourism and recreation have numerous benefits to public felicity. Northeast Anatolia
(TRA1 NUTS II) Region of Turkey has untouched nature with diverse tourism and
recreational potentials, which have been planned to use for the service of socio –
economic development of local people in the scope of a strategy, Innovation Based
Tourism Development Strategy prepared by Northeast Anatolia Development Agency
(KUDAKA in Turkish acronym). Even though the region shelters potentials especially for
winter and nature and adventure tourism, general public opinion about its climatic
characteristics is generally unfavourable because country’s extreme weather events and
values are reported from the region. This study was conducted to evaluate climatic
characteristics of the region in the sample of Erzincan city for touristic activities all year
round using a 37- year (from 1975 to 2011) data set and one of the newly developed
tourism climate indices, CTIS (Climate-Tourism-Information-Scheme). It was found from
the result of the study that the city and the region do not really have unfavourable climatic
characteristics for tourism and recreation activities and it was suggested that both infrastructural investment based on landscape planning should be made and promotional and
marketing strategies should be developed and applied in the region through new
development programs and projects in order to achieve a sustainable tourism
development.