Cultural heritage will benefit from the support of other branches of tourism for the development of tourism. In addition to being inland with many tourism spots, rural tourism has a very important place especially for cultural heritage. Rural tourism can be defined as a type of tourism based on the activities of agricultural activities and natural resources in rural areas. Rural areas are especially recommended for cultural tourism. Indeed, in support of this, one of the four charms that World Tourism Organization has identified as rural tourism attractions is “rural heritage.”
TopIntroduction
The reason for travel for people participating in tourism events today is becoming more varied by the day. In recent years, efforts to disseminate the tourism activities of the countries that are the leading countries in tourism to all regions within the country have resulted in the diversification of tourism along with the idea of utilizing tourism for all four seasons. This situation causes alternative tourism to gain importance in the tourism industry. Alternative tourism is a concept that has emerged in parallel with tourists' changing understanding of travel and has given a new dimension to tourism in this respect.
Among the various alternative tourism types, heritage tourism has become an area of interest for tourists and has developed to a significant level. This trend has been further enhanced by the cultural diversity of mankind and the need for historical values all over the world. In other words, this diversity and historical values are the biggest motivation of tourists in heritage tourism (Ismagilova et al., 2015).
In recent times, the natural and cultural values of coastal regions and nearby places, which constitute the supply of traditional mass tourism, are losing their essence as a result of economisation and commercialization. For this reason, rural tourism, one of the types of eco-tourism that instils the awareness of protecting natural and cultural resources and considers these values within the scope of sustainable tourism, has emerged as an alternative to mass tourism. Because of these characteristics, cultural tourism has almost become integrated with rural tourism. Countries are trying to fulfil the requirements of sustainable tourism by developing effective and applicable policies in order to get a share from economic, social and cultural contributions of these types of tourism (Kodas & Sü Eröz, 2012).
The aim of this section is to demonstrate the share of rural tourism in this development, while stating that it can be done on the development and dissemination of cultural heritage tourism. In this direction, first of all, information will be provided on cultural and heritage concepts, cultural tourism will be mentioned and cultural heritage tourism will be explained and information about cultural heritage tourists will be given. Following this, an attempt will be made to explain the development and dissemination of cultural heritage tourism. In line with the direction of the aim of this section, rural tourism will be explained and the section will be concluded with the topic of rural tourism and its importance in the development and dissemination of cultural heritage.
The Culture
According to Tylor (1871), culture is a complex set of “knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, law, tradition, and other talents and habits that a person has gained as a member of society”. According to another definition, culture emerges as the knowledge, experience, belief, value, attitude, meaning, hierarchy, religion, time concepts, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe and material objects and properties acquired by a group of people through individual and group work through generations (Hofstede, 1997). The definition of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute also implies that the concept of culture covers the following while defining culture (www.roshaninstitute.org):
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Language: The oldest human institution and the most sophisticated form of expression.
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Art and Science: The most advanced and refined forms of human expression.
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Thought: The way people perceive, interpret and understand the world around them.
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Spirituality: The value system, language and means of action passed down the generations for the inner well-being of people.
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Social Activity: Sharing within a cultural community shown at various festivals and events celebrating life.
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Interaction: Social aspects of human contact, including socialization, negotiation, giving and receiving of protocols and contracts.
From the above-mentioned definitions, it can be described that culture is a part of the lifestyle shared by many people, such as verbal and written language, behaviour, lifestyle, tradition, heritage, ideology and even similarities in technology.