Abstract:

In the context of alternative tourism, it is necessary to provide tourism with the potential areas to be used as a means of regional development in order to use winter tourism as a means of regional development and to develop existing winter tourist destinations. This study aims to identify the consumer behavior of indigenous tourists who participate in winter tourism in the context of the development of existing winter tourist destinations. For this purpose, from 480 indigenous tourists who visited the Erciyes Ski Center in the province of Kayseri for winter tourism purposes, in the period of December 2014-March 2015, data were collected within the framework of the survey technique. The data is compared with the demographic and other characteristics of the indigenous tourists’ travel motivations (rest, self-development, peace, socialization) and travel satisfactions (pist, shopping, safety, accommodation, trainer, transport). In the framework of the research results, significant differences between the travel motivations of the indigenous tourists who participate in winter tourism and age, educational status, income and profession; travel satisfaction and educational status, stay time and travel numbers have been identified. Indigenous tourists are motivated to tourism in the winter; relaxation, self-development, peace and socialization; and travel satisfaction is determined to be the priority of trainer, track, transport, safety, accommodation and shopping satisfaction.

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