The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye
The Kaçkar Mountains, the highest and most distinctive range in Türkiye’s Eastern Black Sea Region, occupy a notable place in the ecotourism literature owing to their biodiversity, glacial lakes formed by Pleistocene glaciation, and traditional highland (yayla) culture. This study examines “Kaçkar by UTMB” — the Turkish leg of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc World Series — from the perspectives of sports geography, sport tourism, regional development, and destination branding. A qualitative design combining document analysis with field observation was adopted, and the race routes were inventoried through fieldwork and geographic location data. Held in Rize/Çamlıhemşin on 26–28 September 2025, the event brought together 1,285 athletes from 55 countries. The analysis covers the organisation’s technical structure, the 20KM and 50KM route inventories, the 100KM course scheduled for 2026, climatic conditions, and the event’s economic effects on the region. The findings indicate that the routes link 12 strategic highland settlements, thereby integrating the region’s biocultural heritage with sport tourism, and that the event raised accommodation occupancy during the off-season, easing the destination’s seasonality problem. A female participation rate of 35% is discussed as a preliminary indicator of the destination’s accessibility and inclusiveness. The vision of the Kaçkar Mountains as the “Chamonix of the North” is finally evaluated in relation to the strategic initiatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Governorship of Rize, and to carrying-capacity and sustainability principles. Deepening local participation and establishing GIS-based monitoring systems are recommended.
Keywords
Sport Tourism, Destination Branding, Kaçkar by UTMB, Kaçkar Mountains, Sustainable Development
@article{2026,title={The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye},abstractNode={
The Kaçkar Mountains, the highest and most distinctive range in Türkiye’s Eastern Black Sea Region, occupy a notable place in the ecotourism literature owing to their biodiversity, glacial lakes formed by Pleistocene glaciation, and traditional highland (yayla) culture. This study examines “Kaçkar by UTMB” — the Turkish leg of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc World Series — from the perspectives of sports geography, sport tourism, regional development, and destination branding. A qualitative design combining document analysis with field observation was adopted, and the race routes were inventoried through fieldwork and geographic location data. Held in Rize/Çamlıhemşin on 26–28 September 2025, the event brought together 1,285 athletes from 55 countries. The analysis covers the organisation’s technical structure, the 20KM and 50KM route inventories, the 100KM course scheduled for 2026, climatic conditions, and the event’s economic effects on the region. The findings indicate that the routes link 12 strategic highland settlements, thereby integrating the region’s biocultural heritage with sport tourism, and that the event raised accommodation occupancy during the off-season, easing the destination’s seasonality problem. A female participation rate of 35% is discussed as a preliminary indicator of the destination’s accessibility and inclusiveness. The vision of the Kaçkar Mountains as the “Chamonix of the North” is finally evaluated in relation to the strategic initiatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Governorship of Rize, and to carrying-capacity and sustainability principles. Deepening local participation and establishing GIS-based monitoring systems are recommended.
},author={Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK},year={2026},journal={Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi}}
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK . 2026 . The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye . Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi.DOI:10.29228/isorej.96403
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK.(2026).The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye.Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK,"The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye" , Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi (2026)
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK . 2026 . The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye . Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi . 2026. DOI:10.29228/isorej.96403
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK .The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye. Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi (2026)
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK .The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye. Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi (2026)
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Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK. (2026) .The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK . The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye . Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi . 2026 doi:10.29228/isorej.96403
Öğr. Gör. Hikmet HABERAL-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK."The Role of a Global Sports Event in Sports Geography, Sports Tourism and Destination Branding: The Case of “Kaçkar by UTMB” as the First UTMB Event Held in Türkiye",Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Ulusal Eğitim Dergisi(2026)
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Evren ATIŞ
-Doç. Dr. Evren ATIŞ;;;Öğrenci Berke BURMABIYIK
