Abstract:

With the addition of Safranbolu to the "World Heritage List" by UNESCO in 1994, the district's attractiveness has increased, and in parallel with that; there has been a noticeable increase in the number of domestic and foreign tourists coming to the district. Knowing how tourist attractions are valued by destinations will guide industry representatives, the tourism stakeholders. Based on the importance of this, the purpose of this research is to determine the travel motivations that are effective for local tourists to visit Safranbolu and to guide the relevant stakeholders. In this context, data were obtained by survey method during the research conducted with 320 local tourists visiting Safranbolu between 15 May-30 October 2019. The data were analyzed and interpreted with a statistical program. According to research results, it was determined that the most important information source for domestic tourists to visit Safranbolu was the Internet, and the first three most important reasons that are effective in their visits were Safranbolu houses, historical texture and curiosity. Research findings reveal that age, gender, education level and the information sources that are effective in visiting the district have no significant difference on travel motivations to Safranbolu, whereas occupational groups, income level and the city of residence have a significant difference on travel motivations.