Tourism and Development : Tourism as a Tool for Development: The Case of Mawlana Tourism in Konya-Turkey

The interrelation between tourism and development, especially urban tourism and urban development reflects on the relation between the emergence of Mawlana tourism (religious-spiritual tourism) and the rise of Konya as newly emerged developing city in Turkey, as many other cases. However, the case of Konya has unique parameters that tourism is a tool for the development of other sectors, for the building of an urban identity, and for the articulation of the city to the global markets rather than the development of the tourism sector itself. The parameters in whichthe marketing and commoditization of a religious-spiritual-cultural- historical value of Mawlana and his Order is used within the development process of Konya are the core arguements of this study. The relation between the emergence of Mawlana tourism and urban development of Konya was hypothetically and theoretically analyzed, and the usage of the Mawlana tourism as a tool for the urban development of Konya was studied.