Antalya students use AI to raise sustainable tourism awareness

ANTALYA

University students in the southern province of Antalya, a popular tourism hub, have projected the future of the city using artificial intelligence to draw attention to unsustainable tourism practices.

An innovative workshop titled “STARC Mediterranean Architecture and Sustainable Tourism,” organized by Akdeniz University architecture students, brought together Antalya’s foremost tourism professionals, architects, students and deans from various architecture faculties.

Leading the workshop were lecturers Hilal Tuğba Örmecioğlu, İkbal Erbaş and Evren Ülkeryıldız, who guided the students in utilizing AI to explore and address the potential future crisis of unsustainable tourism in Antalya.

The workshop aimed to raise awareness and encourage proactive thinking about sustainable tourism practices.

During the workshop, students created and presented five dystopian scenarios, set in the year 2224, under themes such as over-tourism, over-pollution, resource exhaustion and loss of local identity.

These scenarios were brought to life through AI-generated visuals and videos, capturing the participants’ interest and sparking discussions on potential impacts on the environment, cityscape, social life and culture.

The scenarios were designed not just to highlight the problems but to prompt participants to think critically about sustainable tourism strategies.

By visualizing extreme yet plausible future situations, the workshop emphasized the importance of developing a conscious and responsible approach to future tourism development.

The students’ AI-generated works were exhibited in the main entrance foyer of Akdeniz University Faculty of Architecture from May 23-29, allowing a broader audience to engage with the concepts and solutions proposed during the workshop.

In the first four months of the year, Antalya broke a record by hosting 2.66 million foreign visitors, according to Culture and Tourism Ministry data.

The city, which attracted tourists from all over the world, hosted 17 million people in 2023.

Recently, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced significant progress in the Sustainable Tourism Certificate Program.

Established to enhance Türkiye’s tourism potential sustainably, the program operates under a three-phase plan.

The first phase, completed in 2023, saw over 7,000 facilities meeting criteria such as zero waste, water treatment, recycling, renewable energy use, customer satisfaction and proper promotion.