Meryem HAYIR, Çiğdem Demir TONGUÇ

Abstract. Transhumance is a traditional economic activity based on stock breeding that has been carried out for many years in Turkey. Turkey naturally has an uneven topography and has many plateaus due to its hilly areas. Even though there may be differences in the regional scale, tourism activities increased in the areas where cattle breeding was done until 1980. Plateau tourism can be considered as an important part of nature tourism. Damaging the nature in these areas will risk the growing tourism potential as well as the breeding areas of the animals that are raised as a traditional economic activity. Transhumance activities in the Keremali Mountain located on the western part of North Anatolian mountains will be studied due to its closeness and easy access to the North Western part, which is a highly populated area in Turkey. After the tourism potential of the plateaus in the area will be evaluated, the most important plateau in the region: Çiğdem Plateau will be studied as an example.The people who come from Sakarya, İzmit, İstanbul, Düzce settlements take (regreatif) short term advantage of the Keremali Plateau. However, in order to keep nature tourism going, accommodation possibilities in the area should be increased without harming the nature and short term tourism should be converted to long term tourism.

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