The South Tourism Regions of the Island of Mindanao from the Perspective of Tourism Geography

Abstract

Mindanao is both the second largest and the second most populated island in the Republic of the Philippines. Mindanao that stands out with its majestic waterfalls, eerie volcanoes, deserted tropical beaches, dense rainforests and unique natural protection areas is a Philippine island that is the least known and least visited by the Turkish tourists. Mindanao, which is one of the largest and most densely populated islands in the world, is the southernmost island of the Philippines, has a coast on four seas. As the seventh most populated island in the world, Mindanao, is also the island of the Philippines with the largest Muslim population. The primary purpose of this regional geography study, which has the characteristics of a tourist guide, is to provide detailed geographical and tourism information to investors, students, scientists, businessmen and the tourists visiting this island and reveal the geographical and tourism potential of each region on the one hand, and promote the cultural touristic places and natural touristic attractiveness on the other. In the present study; Davao, Zamboanga, General Santos, Cotabato, Mati City ve Pagadian, namely the geographical features, tourism centers and tourism potentials of 6 regions, were investigated. Considering the fact that the tourism regions which are located in the southern parts of the island of Mindanao were studied, it is understood that only the half of the island was investigated. Since the multidimensional tourism portrait of a large tropical island has not been examined in detail covering different geographical regions, among the scientific studies carried out in Turkey, it is possible to say that this study which was carried out with the title “Southern Mindanao” is a research which was drawn up for the first time in our country. Since there is no detailed research in Turkey regarding the geographical and tourism potential of the southern regions of the island of Mindanao, it is expected that a significant void of information is filled via this study.