Аңдатпа
Tourist destinations, in their simplest sense, are recognized today as key contributors to regional development and to the diversification of economies in emerging countries. With the increased competition among destinations driven by digitalization, branding, and sustainability concerns, the role of national tourism policies in shaping destination performance has been reconsidered. It is possible to mention that, despite this renewed interest, a synthesis of how strategic development frameworks have transformed tourist destinations into vehicles for regional growth over a long period has not been adequately presented in the literature. The purpose of this study is to examine how such frameworks have been applied to tourist destinations in Türkiye by addressing (i) the conceptual evolution of tourist destinations, (ii) Türkiye’s strategic profile as a tourist destination, and (iii) Türkiye’s national tourism policy through the twelve National Development Plans prepared between 1963 and 2028. In this research, document analysis technique, one of the qualitative analysis methods, was used and the obtained data were gathered from primary sources such as the National Development Plans, the sectoral objectives of the Twelfth Development Plan, the World Heritage, Creative Cities and Cittaslow designations, the national parks inventory, and the relevant peer-reviewed literature. It has been determined that the development of tourist destinations in Türkiye has followed a centrally planned direction over sixty years, with the focus moving from a post-war emphasis on infrastructure to more recent concerns regarding branding, sustainability, and digitalization. In this context, it is recommended that emerging tourism economies, including those of the Pavlodar region in Kazakhstan, consider Türkiye’s regional planning experience rather than adopting its practices directly. Keywords: Tourist destinations, Strategic development, Tourism policy, Türkiye, Regional development, Development plans.