Özet:

Turkey is among the world’s tourist destinations with its modern facilities and high quality service in addition to its natural beauties, historical past and cultural heritage. Istanbul has an important position among these destinations with its tourism resources and the tourist density it hosts. Tourist guides play an important role in the promotion of Istanbul. Because tourist guides are important actors in tourism industry, which accompanies tourists during their travels, helps tourists to get know the region they visit and makes a significant contribution to the interaction between tourists and local people. It is aimed with this study to determine foreign tourists perceptions about Turkey, Istanbul, tourism and tourist guide through metaphors. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted and a semi-structures interview form was prepared. Information was collected through the prepared interview form by face-to-face interviews with Russian, German and Iranian tourists visiting Istanbul with a tour guide. The tourists, participated in this research, developed various metaphors for the forenamed concepts. These metaphors were divided into categories by examining their common features and previous studies. Also it has been tried to determine whether there are differences between metaphors and categories developed by tourists according to their nationalities.  As a result of this study iı has been identified that Russian and German tourists developed metaphors related to society about Turkey. Iranian tourists often develop metaphors related to environment about Turkey. For the concept of Istanbul, German tourists developed metaphors related to emotions, Russian and Iranian tourists developed metaphors related to history and culture. For the concept of tourism, German and Russian tourists mostly develop metaphors related to classical perceptions, while Iranian tourists frequently develop metaphors about economy. All three groups of tourists developed metaphors about qualifications for the concept of tourist guide.        

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