Sustainable Heritage Planning for Urban Mass Tourism and Rural Abandonment: An Integrated Approach to the Safranbolu–Amasra Eco-Cultural Route

A resilient eco-cultural tourism route for Safranbolu and Amasra, Türkiye, offers a solution to the dual challenges of urban mass tourism and rural abandonment. This approach, inspired by historical travel itineraries, integrates participatory planning, crowdsourcing, GIS analysis, AI clustering, and multi-criteria decision-making to strengthen heritage conservation while fostering sustainable development. The study identifies critical gaps in site management strategies, capacity-building, and stakeholder engagement, highlighting the need for more inclusive and adaptive governance models. By leveraging advanced technologies and collaborative methodologies, this framework mitigates the negative impacts of tourism pressures on UNESCO-listed sites, providing a replicable model for other heritage destinations.

Karataş, E., Özköse, A., & Heyik, M. A. (2025). Sustainable Heritage Planning for Urban Mass Tourism and Rural Abandonment: An Integrated Approach to the Safranbolu–Amasra Eco-Cultural Route. Sustainability, 17(7), 3157. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17073157