Özet:

The purpose of this research is to identify the perceptions of the local people living in Ahlat on the concepts of "Ahlat" and "tourism" through metaphors and categorize these metaphors categorically. For the purposes of this study, the method of research is used. The research data was obtained using a structured interview form. The participants, “I think, are... as if. “I think it’s a tourism... as if. Because they were asked to complete the two expressions in the form of a metafor and to write why they prefer that metafor. The study included 185 people between 28 October 2020 and 7 November 2020 but 137 people were able to be interviewed. 37 interviews forms have not been evaluated that explain why the metaphor missing, not written or produced in the data assessment process. The rest of the 100 people were interviewed. The data in these forms are analyzed using the content analysis technique. The findings show that the participants produced 57 different metaphors for the concept of "Ahlat" and 59 different metaphors for the concept of "tourism". 38% of participants produced metaphors of Ahlat's historical and cultural perception. The most repeated metaphors for the concept of "Ahlat" were "history", "history and culture" and "open-air museum". On the other hand, 33% of participants produced metaphors aimed at the economic perception of tourism. The most repeated metaphors for the concept of "tourism" were "money", "travel", "economic resource", "development" and "discovery".