Tourism success is an important parameter of regional development. The way a society perceives tourism and existing issues and the rate of participation in political decisions are also important factors, particularly for developing regions. In this sense, the perspective of the locals provides a significant clue for researchers and policy makers. In this study, the tourism development of Adıyaman, one of the potential tourism destination of Turkey, has been analysed through a societal perspective. 187 people have been selected through convenience sampling method under the scope of the study and they have been posed open-ended questions. The acquired data have been categorized under three sections as socio-cultural, socio-economic and geographic barriers. As a result of the study, the most significant barriers for tourism are defined as the local administration, investment, transport and promotion.