FEST Summe School Presentation - Session #1

1. Spreading the benefits,
spreading the load
Mass Cultural Tourism in a World Heritage
Listed Village
Cumalıkızık, Turkey
Julie Scott

3. Bursa-Cumalıkızık: The Birth of the
Ottoman Empire

7. Problems to be addressed by SCBT
intervention
• Quality issues
– Generic imported
handicrafts
– Congestion and
unsightliness of crowded
market place and door
step stalls
– Lack of quality and
hygiene control of
produce sold at door
step
– Visitor experience

8. Problems … cont.
• Decline in tradition of
cooperation to achieve
collective ends
• Decline in area of village
land under cultivation
• Agriculture poorly
connected with tourism
• Lack of intergenerational
transfer of ICH knowledge
and values
• Discontent and project
fatigue

9. Complexity of stakeholder relations
• Problems of coordination, communication,
and perception
• Inherent tensions and conflicts
• Period of ethnographic fieldwork for
stakeholder analysis

10. Stakeholders
IN CUMALIKIZIK
– Agricultural Co-operative
– Women’s Association
– Muhtarlik
– Accommodation providers (4
pansiyons)
– Village school
GOVERNMENTAL
– the Provincial Directorate of
Culture and Tourism
– the Governorate of Bursa
– Bursa Metropolitan
Municipality
– Yıldırım Municipality
– World Heritage Site
Management Unit – based at
Bursa Metropolitan
Municipality

11. Stakeholders (cont.)
PRIVATE SECTOR
– Tour operators (Istanbul)
– Hotels in Bursa
– Wider economy and industry
in Bursa (with a stake in
UNESCO WHS ‘brand’)
NGOs
– ÇEKÜL
– Chamber of Architects
– History Foundation

12. Stakeholders (cont.)
• GECE KONDU SETTLEMENT – DEĞİRMENÖNÜ
– Built on former village land, pop. ca 50,000
– Conflict with village
– Suffers from social, economic and cultural
marginalisation and social fragmentation
– Competes with Cumalikizik for resources from
Yıldırım and BBB
– Supplies cheap labour for village farming and
tourism
– ‘the division between Değirmenönü and
Cumalıkızık is like the border between Turkey and
Syria’

13. Stakeholder analysis: urban
encroachment
• Interdependence of Cumalıkızık and
Değirmenönü:
– Cheap labour for Cumalıkızık’s gardens & tourism
– Shared resources – land, municipality, amenities
– Problems of criminality affecting Cumalıkızık also
effect residents of Değirmenönü
– Desire of Değirmenönü to capture some economic
benefits of proximity to UNESCO WHS

14. Stakeholder analysis: lack of
cooperation …
• Ineffective mechanisms for: equitable
distribution of footfall in the village,
prioritising conservation of traditional village
properties, decline in cooperative pooling of
labour in village gardens
• Availability of cheap agricultural labour from
gece kondu settlement
• Cooperation strong in non-monetised
collective activities

15. Two pilot projects of 4 & 5 work
packages proposed:
FACING THE CITY NOURISHING THE RURAL ROOTS

16. Priorities:
• Address quality issues to prevent downward
spiral
• Connect agriculture & tourism in a virtuous
circle
• Build social capital – participation and sense
of community
• Maintain UNESCO WHS values underpinning
listing

17. Strategic Approach
• Build community through participative
methodologies
– Action research
– Poster campaigns, competitions, launch events
– Involve the school!
• Choose goals strategically – not handicrafts or
accommodation for now
• Link actions to concrete outcomes
• Build partnerships & collaboration – find ways to
build cooperation with Değirmenönü and include
in the benefits of Cumalıkızık’s tourism

18. FACING THE CITY Work Package 2
• Community oral history project
– Build trust: a way of creating a collective
enterprise not tainted by economic calculation -
enables people to build a picture of their
community, and their place in it
– Mobilise participation: involve children & young
people in collection of narratives. Community
exhibitions & events
– Generate content for enhanced interpretation &
signage

19. • Extend community oral history
project to Değirmenönü with
the same rationale of building
community & cooperation
• develop the on-going narrative
of the dynamic relationship
between the urban and the
rural, which underpins
Cumalıkızık’s UNESCO WHS
inscription
• Instigate small SCBT project in
Değirmenönü, on the pattern
of local tourism initiatives in
the poorer and under-visited
parts of London (e.g. East End
Tours) as a means of kick-
starting local cultural and
community development
Bring the existing historical narrative
up to date

20. NOURISHING THE RURAL: Work package 4
– Reduce reliance on
chemical inputs
– Reduce amount of
waste going to
landfill
– Create employment
– Build community
engagement
Community composting –
Değirmenönü and
Cumalıkızık

21. NOURISHING THE RURAL: Work package 5
• Community gardening
for Değirmenönü
– Enhance the environment
– Build community
– Develop visitor attraction
– Commercial opportunities
– Employment