Light Pollution and Astro-tourism: The Case of Melik Plateau

The sky, the stars, the rainbow, and the universe have always piqued people’s interest, from ancient times to the present. The night sky can be enjoyed in all its glory in large rural areas that are not harmed by light pollution. For sky observations, places with less light pollution are favored due to heavy light pollution in cities. The concept of astro-tourism was born as a result of this event’s transformation into a tourism activity. Astro-tourism is a sort of nature-based tourism that involves traveling to locations where there is no light pollution to observe the sky and celestial occurrences. The Melik Plateau in Isparta Province has been named the darkest place among Turkey’s National Parks, with little light and air pollution. As a result, the goal of this study is to determine the current state of astro-tourism activities on the Melik Plateau. For this purpose, a SWOT analysis was made regarding the astro-tourism activities of Melik PlateauJEL classification: L83; Z3