Urban design toolkit for creative place-making and cultural tourism: The case of Alaçatı

Abstract

This study investigates relationship between creativity and cultural tourism in the case of Alaçatı. In that sense, the new concept of creativity with various terms including creative economy, creative class, creative industries, creative clusters and creative tourism come into prominence for contributing economic and cultural development of historical settlements. In this context, urban design approach comes out for evaluating creative making process in the context of cultural tourism. The urban design toolkit that has various methods and techniques is evaluated for the study in the context of creativity. The study also focuses small scale towns that have substantial risk of lose their cultural landscape based on negative impacts of cultural tourism. In this context, creative clustering process of Alaçatı known as small scale town presents new insights about sustainable cultural tourism. The urban design toolkit consisting diagnostic and predictive analyses is used for understanding and promoting creative environment of Alaçatı. Study findings suggest that creative clustering process especially in small scale towns promotes the sustainable development of cultural tourism. Ultimately, based on the findings of the study, creative clustering process minimizes negative impacts of the tourism development.