Feriyal ANDARABI FARHADI, Selma UYGURB MEYDAN

A Research on Determining the Touristic Destination Image of Turkey in Iran

TThe purpose of the present study is to examine Iranians’ opinions on Turkey’s destination image and to understand what kind of channels they use to get the information. Within this context, the students studying in the faculty of economics, management and business administration in Iran-Tabriz University were interviewed face to face and 384 acceptable questionnaires were subjected to the analysis. The questionnaire scale was adopted from the studies of Echtner& Ritchie and Taşçı et al. The descriptive statistics, the factor analysis, t-Test and ANOVA test were performed on the data. As a result of the analyses, it was seen that Turkey’s destination image was very positive in Iran. Although positive opinions were observed in some of the previous researches on Turkey’s destination image in the eye of Iranians, the negative results regarding the overall image of Turkey were obtained in almost all studies. In the light of the positive image found out in the present study, it is recommended to consider Iran as an important touristic target market, to make remarkable investments in this market and to increase both the market share and customer share through the appropriate strategies

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Destination image, Turkey

A Research on Determining the Touristic Destination Image of Turkey in Iran

Because of the tourism products usually have abstract and similar characteristics, competition between destinations is achieved through images. Successful countries in the tourism sector continue to create and maintain a positive image to raise their awareness. Carrying out analysis and evaluation works as to touristic destination image in a regular basis is a prerequisite for countries to adopt correct marketing strategies and become successful in the sector. In this context, a research on determining the touristic destination image of Turkey in Iran was conducted. In the research, students studying at Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Tabriz University, Iran were interviewed. As a result of analyses, it was observed touristic destination image of Turkey in Iran is quite positive. Although positive results were found in a few previous studies on touristic destination image of Turkey, opinions as to its general image were negative in all studies. In this research, it is recommend to consider Iran, which possesses positive destination image of Turkey, as a significant touristic target market and to increase both market and customer share through appropriate strategies on this market.

Keywords:

Touristic destination image, Turkey,

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