Determination of temporal and spatial changes of visits to Ihlara Valley with social media data

Abstract

Protected areas have become important tourism destinations in terms of nature-based tourism and recreation activities. Real-time data on the behavior and preferences of visitors are needed for the management of protected areas. Social media data provides a unique and on-site source of information about human existence and activities in nature when collecting visitor information is laborious and costly. In this study, it is aimed to determine the temporal and spatial changes of visitors to Ihlara Valley by using geotagged photographs on Flickr. Detailed analysis of visitor behavior and preferences was carried out with trend charts and density maps created from geotagged photo data. The results of the study revealed that Flickr data is a useful resource for evaluating the characteristics of protected areas, analyzing visitor behavior and preferences from a temporal-spatial point of view, and providing new opportunities for future research.

Keywords

• social media
• geotagged photography
• visitor behavior
• temporal-spatial analysis
• sosyal medya
• coğrafi etiketli fotoğraf
• ziyaretçi davranışı
• zamansal-mekânsal analiz