PERCEPTIONS OF INCOMING TOURIST ABOUT KONYA AS A TOURISTIC DESTINATION

Abstract

Konya is a city with a rich history, cultural and natural attractions and a potential to become a tourist destination. In addition to Çatalhöyük, one of the oldest settlements in history, the city also has natural charms with its lakes, caves, mountains and platters. In addition to these, Mevlâna, which is known around the world and is a cultural image of the city, is seen as another tourist attraction when it lived in Konya. These attractiveness can affect tourists' buying preferences. The aim of the project is to measure the Konya perceptions of foreign tourists coming to Konya and to propose them. Survey technique was used as data collection tool in the study. The questionnaire was made for 110 foreign tourists visiting Konya and the obtained data was analyzed and interpreted through statistical package program. As a result of the study, historical and cultural values came first among the reasons for visiting foreign tourists visiting Konya. Approximately 75% of the foreign tourists who participated in the survey stated that they never visited Konya before. It is seen that all four foreign tourists coming to Konya have a positive opinion about Konya province. With this result, tourists coming to Konya in the same direction have reached the result that they can recommend the destination to others. As a result of the analysis of the obtained data, only about 7% of the tourists who came to Konya stated that they visited Konya for the purpose of the conference. Considering the development potential of Konya, it can be suggested that more attention should be given to meeting, congress and event management in order to improve the tourism of the destination.