Examination of rural architecture that shapes sustainable tourism in emerging economies through stakeholder perspectives: Sile, Istanbul

Tourism has been recognized as an essential economic development tool generating revenue and employment for nations’ economies. The study aims to prevent the migration of local communities to another place, the disappearance of cultural traditions over time, the inactivity of historical rural buildings, and the transformation of rural areas into places unsuitable for daily life and rituals of the local people with sustainable rural tourism policies and strategies. For this purpose, a participatory perspective will be presented by considering the differences of Akcakese Village in Sile, as in the case studies, with a holistic database to be created in line with the views of tourists, residents, public officials, and tour organizers. This case study has used a conceptual framework of current trends in sustainable rural tourism, as well as a combination of a SWOT matrix and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach to understanding the primary ways in which a declining rural destination can utilize its architectural heritage to regenerate physically, socially, and economically. In this way, the study will contribute to determining the applications that can be made to revitalize the historical rural areas, which have experienced a similar decline with Akcakese Village over time, focusing on rural tourism.