The Evaluation of the Perceptions of Tourists Participated in A Package Tour within the Scope of Tourist Guide Performance

Özet

Although package tours include many products and services, the presentation and management of these products and services are mostly done with tourist guides. With this aspect, the performance of tourist guides, which is one of the key points of package tours is very important in success. When the literature is examined, it is noteworthy that many studies reveal the role and effect of the tourist guide on the success of the package tour. The main purpose of this study is to determine the evaluations of the foreign tourists traveling in the scope of package tour regarding the performance of the tourist guide. For this purpose, the research was carried out by using qualitative research methods. The sample of the study consists of 19 foreign tourists traveling in the same group. The package tour selected within the scope of the research conducted in May 2018 starts in Istanbul and the tourists visit different tourist destinations of Turkey during 15 days. Within the scope of the research, participants were asked to evaluate the first half of the tour on the seventh day, which is the middle of the 15-day tour and to express what they expect from the other half of the tour. The structured questionnaire forms, which consist of expressions that the participants fully reflect with their own free will, were examined by the content analysis method and the findings obtained as a result of the analysis were collected under three dimensions as positive expressions, negative expressions, and suggestions. The positive expressions dimension consists of the personality traits, knowledge level, communication ability, presentation ability, organizational ability, and guide-group interaction themes. Under the negative expressions dimension, there are themes of program management and guide-group interaction and extra activities, giving information and guide-group interaction themes are included under the dimension of suggestions. In the conclusion part of the study, the suggestions for effective guidance services in package tours were discussed within the framework of the related literature and recommendations of the participants.