The Lack of Policy, Planning, and Governance: The Mismanagement of Visitor Pressure in Cumalıkızık, Bursa—A World Heritage Site

Using a rural World Heritage Site from Turkey, this qualitative study questions tourism governance from the perspective of social-ecological systems (SES) theory. For exploring our research aim, we collected data from multiple primary sources in addition to secondary resources between the years of 2018–2020. We first describe the planning phases within the historical context of tourism development in Cumalikizik village and explore the governance mechanisms, interactions, and tensions between the stakeholders. Our findings suggest that the co-management processes that are not effectively functioning prevent the community from taking corrective action and responding to visitor pressures. Failing to establish an adaptive and resilient system, the village is losing its identity. Through these results, we recommend public authorities to take responsibility and be more accountable for tourism development. Our results indicate that the community would benefit from product and service innovation that would sustain authenticity and foster culture-based tourism.