WORLD WAR II BATTELFIELDS TOURS IN THE WEST EUROPE
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DOI: 10.35666/25662880.2024.10.42
UDC: 338.481:355.48(4-15:560)
Abstract: Battlefield tourism is emerging as a new market and marketing area for tour operators to respond to changing human needs in a globalised world. This type of tourism is becoming more and more important in the tourism sector with the various tours it offers and is being preferred more and more every day. In Türkiye, battlefield tours are limited to certain regions and this situation results in a lack of detailed studies on the supply of battlefield tourism in the literature. This study is based on the TÜBİTAK 3005 supported project titled 'Creating a National Battle Route from İnönü to Sakarya and Monitoring Its Effects' and compares the content of the tour developed in this project with examples of World War II tours in Western European countries. Thus, it is aimed to enrich the content of a developing tour by using successful examples at an international level. For this purpose, battlefield tours from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Belgium were analyzed through document analysis. This study, which is conducted with a pragmatic paradigm, is a multiple case study. The findings of the study emphasize that the content of battlefield tours varies according to the historical and cultural background of the countries. In this context, the areas that need to be improved in the İnönü to Sakarya National Struggle Tour in Türkiye were determined and a structure that complies with international standards was created.
Key words: battlefield tourism, national struggle tour, international comparison, Türkiye