Cultural heritage sustainability with the perspective of local people: the case of historical Ayvalik houses.

Although the origins of culture go a long way back when compared to tourism, culture and tourism are directly related with each other. All tangible and intangible cultural heritage values are the basis of tourism supply as cultural attractions. For this reason, cultural values are extremely important in the increase of tourism demand for any region. Therefore, these cultural values which are inherited from different civilizations must be protected with a sustainable perspective. In the absence of sustainability, these mysterious attractions will soon disappear. In this context, the study aimed to explore the sustainability of cultural heritage values from the public point of view. The area of the work was determined as Ayvalik houses remaining from the Greeks and considered as important cultural heritage values. The sample of the research is the people living in historical Ayvalik houses. This study was prepared with qualitative method and interview technique was used as data collection tool. As a result, it is found that it is forbidden to make any amendments other than minor modifications in order to preserve the characteristics of the historic houses. There are serious sanctions in case of changes in houses; but the inspections are inadequate. In addition, it has been determined that people have to sell their homes despite their desire because of the cost of caring for the houses. Also it was revealed that since the summer residents who bought houses outside Ayvalik neglected to care for the whole year, the houses were severely damaged and eventually left to the fate of themselves.