ABSTRACT
Since these tourism relationships are a ‘new’ development, there arises the uncertainty and the lack of parameters and codes of practice that accompany any form of social change. As a couple’s relationship becomes longer term, for example, the women have certain ideals and expectations regarding how much time they should spend together and how close they should live their lives. The men too may develop ideals of living and sharing time with their girlfriends, but they are less able to express these desires because of the pressure of village behavioural codes on them. Thus the men find themselves caught up in the tensions that exist between the tourism and traditional realms:
In Göreme everybody knows each other, it’s too small, and also our families look at us. Normally in the house we never touch, we never kiss, they never sit close. They never touch in the home with family. For example, if I was married, and my wife was sitting here, we would never touch because they see it. It doesn’t look good. That’s shameful for us, shame…In Göreme, we can’t walk together in the centre, or near the café, because everyone will see us. The old people, they can’t do anything to us, but they tell people. It’s shameful. They tell that he is having a tourist girl, they are gossiping. And they are saying to my father and mother ‘How will you find a Turkish girl for him?’, because I am all the time going with tourists.
