SES

The social economical system I am going to introduce is located in Aegean coast of Turkey. The name of the place is Alaçatı and it is inside the borders of the third largest city of Turkey, İzmir. Alaçatı is actually a village of Çeşme town. Çeşme has for a long time been one of the popular holiday places in Turkey, and for the last decade Alaçatı has become the first place among Çeşme's villages. The area called Çeşme has several other holiday places within half an hour reach from the town center.

Alaçatı can be characterized for its local, constant and stable wind. The geography has a special feature that the valley and the river feed the local wind and at the coast relatively strong blows occur. For that reason even before Alaçatı was as famous in local tourism as today it has been known by the windsurfer's from all over the world. The reason why the village has become this famous has different reasons than the local weather. Roughly I can summarize the reasons as; old stone houses and tiny streets, specialized restaurants offering both local and innovative cuisine, growing number of artist who live in the village.

Actualy as you can see in the map above, Alaçatı has to be thinked of the composition of two different interests; first one is the windsurfing tourism which is located on the bay, and second one is the ethnic tourism which is located ten minutes of driving away from the bay. However for the last two years there has been projects which mainly focusing on exanding the second type of relatively luxurious tourism onto the calm and protected sports tourism. The aim of the project recent projects is to transform Alaçatı into a canal town like Venice in Italy. There have been made a lot of promises and naturally a lot of discussions and complaints.

For the surfers Alaçatı is also a paradise, especially for the beginners. This is because of the shallow waters that expand into to sea about 100 meters, which enables for beginners to practice more effectively and delightfully. Advanced surfers especially during the stormy weathers also enjoy the bay. There are several competitions held one or two of them internationally recognized.

Port Alaçatı which is the name of the marina founded 15 years ago have lived through a significant expansion in the last decade. The expansion had side effects on the surfing tourism due to the increasing traffic inside the bay, and also smells caused by the decontamination activities of the facilities. Port Alaçatı is also the major player of the canal paradise project.

As a SES Alaçatı can be summarized as follows:


Resurce System:

• Alaçatı

Resource Units:

• Wind
• Sea and Beach
• Authenticity

Users:

• Beginner Surfers
• Advanced Surfers
• Daily economy tourists
• Luxury tourists
• Yachters
• Local residents

Governance System:

• Municipality of Alaçatı

Currently it can be stated that Alaçatı is in the Reorganization phase of a system. The new policies involve debating with different interest groups. The effects of the new constructions have to be analyzed carefully if the richness of the area is wanted to be sustained.