Özet:

Nowadays demographic and sociological changes in society lead to increasing individualism. Reflections of this into tourism have been a significant increase in the number of people travelling alone. Going on a holiday on their own by choice or as a result of loneliness, solo travellers encounter different social environments and communicate with new people at the destination. The aim of this research is to explain the process of solo travellers’ communication regarding ‘with whom, how, why, and where’ and to reveal the effects of this social communication on people’s lives and tourism experiences. To this end, face-to-face interviews were held with 16 solo travellers. Content analysis was applied to the data collected. 4 categories and 18 subcategories were determined. Solo travellers’ profile and behaviour, communication type and structure, barriers of communication, and the effects of communication were studied. The findings indicate that people mostly travel alone with the motivation of freedom and discovering something new, and they contact people for the purpose of getting information, suggestion, help, curiosity, socializing and relieving their stress. Despite the barriers such as language and culture, positive communication has a certain impact on solo travellers’ self-improvement, tourism experience and perception of the destination.

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