Research Information System
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND ECOLOGY, vol.17, no.2, pp.789-795, 2016 (SCI-Expanded)
The river tourism, which is very important for nature tourism, does not require big investments and constitutes a whole together with environmental, historical, archaeological, cultural, authentic values and other types of tourism. Turkey, which has rich natural resources, offers a significant potential with a variety of sporting activities (especially rafting, canoeing and river kayaking, etc.). In this context, the rafting activities are done intensively on some rivers (such as Koprucay, Manavgat, Dim, Adana Feke, Goksu and Zamat) of Turkey. The Koprucay Rafting Area (KRA) which is located in the Koprulu Kanyon National Park (KKNP) of Antalya City is one of the most important nature tourism destinations of Turkey. There are many environmental, social, economic, political, spatial, administrative problems and so on in the KRA. The most important issues are overcrowding with higher capacity utilisation, environmental pollution, irregular constructions, lack of spatial organisation, failing of transportation, accommodation and restrictive legislation, etc. As a result, there are some planning, management and economic suggestions for sustainable protection and utilisation of tourism areas and within rafting tourism.