Tourist in Wonderland: The Architectural Image as a Part of Tourism Marketing

Abstract

The word “tourism” had emerged in end of 18^th century related with the concept of "grand tour" which is a traditional trip undertaken mainly by upper-class Europeans across the Europe by train. After 1930’s, when labor class get the rights for annual leave and increased automobile ownership, the word had been coincided with the short-term vacations to relaxing geographies such as beachfront, mountain side etc. In time, the host geographies earned a considerable amount of income from these short term vacations and tourism became an input for urban and architectural planning. Thereafter, architects aimed to increase the attraction of the “place” for tourists by using design.

Antalya had been one of these centers of attraction after 1980’s. Since then, the city and its architecture have been reshaped on this ambition. In recent decades, this ambition reshaped the east of the city, especially after the area was declared as "Kemerağzı-Kundu Antalya Culture and Tourism Conservation and Development Area" by the Council of Ministers in 03.08.2004. Thereafter, the area has been redesigned for tourism marketing by architectural image production. The aim of this study is to discuss the notion of “created center of attraction” through the famous book of Venturi, “Learning from Las Vegas”.