The evolution and transformation of camping and coastal campgrounds in Antalya, Turkey

Abstract

'Ihc large number of tourism facilities along the coasts of Antalya, which is one of the world's most- visited tourist attractions, led to extinction of many cultural and landscape elements that attract tourists and local community towards the coasts. The camping sites, which bear the traces of temporary accommodation and transient lifestyle of the local community in places called 'oba' locally, are on the brink of shutdown today. Since these transformation on the coastline of Antalya impede the social and cultural lifestyles of local community, this subject becomes important within the context of both tourism and socio-cultural evolution. From this viewpoint, it is aimed to analyze the impacts of coastal structuring and commercialization on the coastal campgrounds that increased along with mass tourism development in Antalya. In this paper, the evolution and transformation of camping and coastal campgrounds in Antalya are investigated, and root causes and resultant effects of this transformation are qualitatively presented by using oral history method from the viewpoint of the witnesses.