A Handcraft in Gaziantep: Yemeni

Abstract

In Gaziantep, there are traditional handcrafts whose manufacture dates back to thousands of years ago and still continue to be produced. One of those handcrafts is Yemeni-making (Yemenicilik). Yemeni, which is very important for foot health, is completely made out of leather and only handwork is used on all of its manufacturing phases. The aim of this study is to determine how long and how Yemeni, which has been made in Gaziantep for many years and attracts tourists under the name of traditional handcrafts, is made by the craftsmen as well as if tourists are aware of Yemeni and whether Yemeni contributes to tourism field or not. The universe of the study is made up of by three Yemeni craftsmen and 95.241 local tourists who visited Gaziantep. The obtained data were examined by two methods according to the source of data. Content analysis of the interviews made with craftsmen constituted the first data, while the calculation of the frequency and percentage ratios using SPSS for the interviews with tourists constituted the second method. In the light of the findings, production of Yemeni is quiet onerous and the tourists are not well-informed about Yemeni. Necessary advertising campaigns must be taken place in order to increase tourists' Yemeni use.