689 Chapter 54 An Assessment on the Floristic Variety of Province of Şırnak- Turkey In Terms of Botanical Tourism Sedat ÇELİK 1 , Aysen ERCAN İŞTİN 2 , Mustafa RÜSTEMOĞLU 3 and Mehmet FİDAN 4 1 Assist. Prof. Dr./ Şırnak University/School of Tourism And Hotel Management, Hospitality Management/ Şırnak-Turkey 2 Research Assistant/ Şırnak University/ School of Tourism And Hotel Management / Travel Management / Şırnak-Turkey 3 Assist. Prof. Dr./ Şırnak University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, Şırnak-Turkey 4 Research Assistant/ Siirt University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, Siirt-Turkey INTRODUCTION Turkey has a considerably rich flora with more than 10000 plant species, and 3649 of them are endemic. The endemism ratio of Turkey is 31.82% (Güner, Aslan, Ekim, Vural & Babaç 2012). "Endemic" refers to plants or animal species which are native and restricted to a specific place on earth and this state or quality means "endemism". This limited spread in endemism has brought Turkey a unique position for plant diversity (Yoğunlu, 2011: 1). Humankind has collected plants from nature and cultivated plants in fields from Neolithic period to nowadays. Botanical gardens are made for the cultivation and display of live plants by scientific methods. The botanical gardens, which were initially set up for ornamentation and a pleasant appearance, were later started to be used for science and education (Özçelik et al., 2006). Indeed, we have seen in recent times that plants are used for a variety of purposes, such as medical, food, cosmetics and landscape (Boz, 2014: 103). Plants are important for people in terms of food, culture and society. Furthermore, plants contribute to the development of the country's tourism by allowing different kinds of activities such as botanical tourism (Demircan, Öz, Stephenson & Karahan, 2006; Boz, 2014:103). The province of Şırnak, the research area, has a unique biological diversity with its natural habitats. A wide segment of Şırnak province (Küpeli Mountain, Cizre and Silopi, Cudi Mountain, Tanin Mountains) has been identified as an important natural area in Turkey. As it is a transitional area between two main geographical regions, it adds an important value as altitude, climate, land structure and vegetation, which reflects the wealth of biological diversity that the province has (Erdoğan & Kalay, 2016:71). For the researchers, we have assessed that the province of Şırnak has the potential of botanical tourism. We have reviewed the botanical tourism potential with the help of literature review and secondary source analysis. We have revealed the botanical tourism and Şırnak plant species and put forward suggestions. Şırnak may provide a new alternative for botanical tourism compared to other destinations for its plant diversity. In