Author(s)

Ü. E. Uysal & P. Özden

Abstract

Over the last decades, cities have been acting as entrepreneurs in attracting visitors. They tend to develop marketing strategies to have a competitive advantage over the others. Cultural tourism, one of the main motivations behind these marketing strategies, has been widely adapted as an urban policy. This paper discusses how cultural tourism has become a tool for urban regeneration and how a sustainable and profitable cultural tourism can be compatible with urban regeneration policies in Istanbul. This study also evaluates Istanbul 2010: The European Capital of Culture, which has been one of the agenda topics in the last few years. Thus, we regard the European Capital of Culture event as a stage to present developments in cultural tourism and its effects on urban regeneration. Keywords: cultural tourism, urban regeneration, Istanbul, European capital of culture. 1 Introduction Cultural tourism has been one of the prominent strategies of cities to generate new sources of income. Cultural tourism, an important tool for the expansion of cultural facilities, is also assumed to contribute urban economy and urban growth. Tourism strategies often cause physical changes in the built environment. The close relationship between cultural tourism and culture led urban regeneration has been one of the delicate topics that aroused academic interest. In this paper, we discuss the main patterns of this relationship and evaluate dynamics of culture led urban regeneration in the case of Istanbul. First, we will introduce the mutual relationship between cultural tourism and urban regeneration. Then we will discuss Istanbul’s recent development as a tourist city. In the following, we analyze urban regeneration in Istanbul in consideration

Keywords

cultural tourism, urban regeneration, Istanbul, European capital of culture