Recent increase in demand for tourism and variation of touristtypes and needs have led to the birth of more specific travel types andactivities. Adventure, which is a specific travel and tourism type at thepresent time, functioned as a means of search for acquiring scientificknowledge, territory, or wealth in the past. However, it has become a goalby itself as a result of the personal needs of individuals in the course oftime. Then it has started to be taken as a special field of interest orpassion. In this way, travels involving the phenomenon of adventurewhich has begun to function as a tourism product, preparation of thecomponents of this product, planning of it, holding and distributingactivities related to it, safety practices concerning it, and so on haveallowed the emergence of adventure tourism sector. Interest in adventuretourism is gradually increasing in the world and in Turkey. The adventuretourism is a complex current issue that is difficult to understand. It isone of the new tourism niches. It allows using the tourism potential infull capacity based on the alternatives that may be provided by theexisting natural and cultural richness. Adventure tourism activities arebecoming widespread across the world. That requires working based onplans and projects. However, although Turkey has richer natural andcultural resources in comparison to many countries in the world, itcannot take enough advantage of these resources in the adventuretourism.This study aims to make a geographical examination of theadventure tourism potential of Hatay Province. To this end, an attempt ismade to answer the following questions: Is Hatay Province suitable foradventure tourism? Can adventure tourism activities be carried put inthis province? What geographical features of the province are importantfor adventure tourism? What are the main elements of the adventuretourism potential of the province? What is the distribution of theadventure tourism potential of the province? What factors are influentialon this distribution? The present study is significant because it is apioneer research on adventure tourism for Hatay. In addition, thispublication is important for advertising and planning in tourism, whichis regarded as one of the key sectors for economic growth anddevelopment in Turkey. Furthermore, the obtained findings and resultsmay contribute to theoretical research and hypotheses on the subject andform a basis for scientists who are to study in the field of adventuretourism.Potential adventure tourism areas in Hatay were determined onlybased on natural environment features and risk elements due to difficultyin supplying and collecting data. Most prominence was given to the effectof natural environment, which is highlighted as one of the basic dynamicsof tourism. This is because; tourism activity needs natural data ratherHatay İlinde Macera Turizmi Potansiyelinin Coğrafi Yaklaşımla İncelenmesi 751Turkish StudiesInternational Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or TurkicVolume 10/2 Winter 2015than social data. Also, adventure tourism has a framework involving openair/adventure recreations.Multiple-criteria decision-making method was used in the study.This method was applied with the scoring system created based on the1-9 scale of preference introduced by Saaty (1980). Evaluation in thescoring scale was made on the basis of the categories of most suitableareas (9-6), suitable areas (6-3), and unsuitable areas (3-1) reported intourism-related research. Grid maps with a resolution of 10x10 m wereobtained by processing the scores of the parameters determined at thisstage through simple additive weighting. The obtained grid maps werecombined by use of the weighted sum function of the spatial analyst toolsin the package. Then the related maps were brought together, and mapof potential adventure tourism areas was obtained. The accuracy of thismap was checked by using high-resolution satellite images and grounddata collected during field surveys. At this stage, 100 sample pointsrandomly taken from the susceptibility map were compared with the realdata, and an average accuracy of 90% was found.The materials related to the parameters evaluated in the study wereobtained from the data acquired from a great variety of institutions andorganizations. All these materials were used in ArcGIS/ArcMap 10.3 in aGIS-supported way. Next, the obtained findings were evaluated throughSWOT analysis. The consistency of the obtained data was checked onsitevia field surveys.Hatay Province is located in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin. It isthe southernmost point of Turkey. It is geographically situated within theborders of Adana Section of the Mediterranean Region. With its natural,cultural, archeological, and historical resources and values, Hatay hasbeen a settlement of human communities since prehistoric periods. It hasbeen put on the historical geography records as one of the oldestsettlements in Anatolia. Moreover, the fact that the province is located atthe junction point of roads extending from south to north and from eastto west has led to the formation of settlements from ancient periods andhas contributed to their sustainability. This richness provides a greattourism potential. However, not enough advantage of this potential hasbeen taken so far.Existence of various spaces allowing adventure tourism in Hatayplays a determining role in its tourism potential. In addition, Hatay’sappropriate environmental conditions for a great variety of alternativetourism activities (e.g. sea tourism, hot spring tourism, tablelandtourism, historical tourism, faith tourism) that are or can be carried outwithin provincial borders may support and complement the province’sadventure tourism.It was realized in the present study that Hatay is s