Revitalizing Famagusta's Historical Urban Spaces to Promote Student Leisure Time: A Case Study

Abstract

Individuals commonly congregate in various locations, such as urban public spaces, to engage in leisure activities. The preservation and revitalization of these public spaces, particularly those with historical significance, are primarily geared towards accommodating tourists. That’s why in the seasons or times that the number of visitors decreases, these areas became empty of life and livability. Therefore, in addition to the tourists, these places need some revitalization to encourage and attract local people and younger generations to use them. In the historical city of Famagusta, there are lots of historic urban spaces that being used for tourist attractions, but in spite of the high population of young people, which most of them are students, they don't spend their leisure time in this historic part. These urban spaces can become popular and alive again if people start to use them. the purpose of the present research is to find important factors and priorities of students to provide some solutions for revitalizing Namik Kemal Meydanı in the historic part of Famagusta. By considering the negative points and solutions from the viewpoint of the students and young generation, the data were collected through interview and questionnaires and review and analysis of library sources. According to the obtained results, revitalization is not successful by just attention to tourist’s demands and there are some important problems that can easily be resolved for the aim of encouraging the students to spend their time in this part of the city and therefore, obtaining a complete and comprehensive revitalization.

Keywords

• Revitalization
• historic urban
• urban conservation
• urban management
• Northern-Cyprus

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