A conceptual review of last chance tourism: The case of Turkey

Abstract

Being always a popular issue despite being called differently on media, last chance tourism (LCT) has become a significant matter in tourism literature in recent years due to the increase in global warming and world population. Even though LCT has emerged in relation to visit demands to destinations under the threat of disappea rance in Arctic regions, the concept is now not only used for destinations disappearing due to environmental changes but also for places disappearing due to anthropogenic reasons. The most important aspects of this concept are its relation with other tourism types and the paradox that it creates because of its impacts on the environment. These two aspects of this concept are still discussed in tourism literature. With regard to this discussion, the purpose of this study is to examine LCT and its paradox in the literature in detail; to discuss the term with regard to Turkey and to determine possible last chance destinations in Turkey with an emphasis on Hasankeyf (Batman). For this aim, a detailed literature review and an online search with keywords such as "places under threat" were conducted. As a result of this study, it is revealed that there are many LCT destinations in Turkey which have been dragged into being a LCT destination as a result of misgovernment and Hasankeyf (Batman) has been already recognized as a LCT destination by the tourists and therefore can be evaluated within LCT literature in future research in a more detailed and empirical way. © 2020 Institute for Tourism. All rights reserved.