Hotels as a Model of Regional Life: The Erzurum Sample

Abstract

Few studies have been undertaken about geographical distributions of hotels. These studies mostly have been done in cities which attract tourists and have a tradition of tourism in order to clarify the factors which affect distribution of hotels. The purpose of this paper is to identify geographical distribution of hotels in the city of Erzurum in eastern Turkey, which does not have tourism as one of the traditional industries. Since hotels serve those who come from outside of the city and mostly from its surrounding regions, the city needs to be considered with its regions. As a result, in the same context hotels, bus-stations and coffee-houses come into the picture in order to serve for incomers. As a result of this, it appears that hotels-bus-stations-coffee-houses cooperate or create synergy. This synergy may be related with the offered service of the city to the surrounding or it may be due to the city's historical growth. All these relations can be explained with the “regional life model”. Regional life areas are those places in which all roads coming from outside end. In addition, such places serve those people coming to the city in order to meet different needs.