Abstract:

This research aims to contribute to the current tourism and gender literature by emphasizing the motivations of female tourists to travel and the negativities they encounter during travel. This study highlights the importance of resistance in women's decision to travel alone. The argument presented here is based on the qualitative method of examining the motivations of international female tourists, especially those who come to an important destination like Istanbul, to travel alone, and the negativeness encountered during their travels. In order to collect the data, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 international female tourists who came to Istanbul. The majority of the participants stated that they did not experience any negative experiences during their travels. Some of the participants stated that the whole society should be educated in order to prevent the negativities they experienced, while others stated that men should be educated. When the factors influencing the selection of the destination were examined, it was seen that safety and hygiene were important. Participants stated that exploring different destinations leads them to travel. It is thought that the purpose here is actually to catch happiness again. Women stated that they felt stuck in a shell in their daily lives and wanted to be happy by exploring destinations they had never seen in order to escape from it. However, the participants stated that researching, learning, exploring different destinations, gaining experience and discovering different cultures made them travel. Based on this result, this study revealed that tourism is not only for pleasure, but also offers an opportunity to discover oneself. The study shows that the negativities during travels of female tourists should be eliminated. In this way, it provides empirical evidence on the reasons behind their motivation to gain travel experience, especially abroad. In addition, the findings of the study provide useful information to the destination managers about the features that female tourists pay attention to when choosing a destination. In addition, recommendations for future research provide valuable information.

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