Turkish Tourism Sector Research Articles

Digital Innovations and Market Dynamics of Tourism Businesses in Turkey

This research explores the intricate relationship between digital innovations and market dynamics within the Turkish tourism businesses. Employing a qualitative approach, data were gathered through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including representatives from tourism agencies, hoteliers, tour operators, and technology providers. Thematic analysis of the data revealed several key findings. Firstly, digital innovations have enabled tourism businesses to enhance customer engagement and deliver personalized experiences, leveraging social media, online booking platforms, and mobile applications. Secondly, technology adoption has led to improved operational efficiency and cost reduction through automation and optimization of various processes. Thirdly, digital platforms have facilitated market expansion and global reach, enabling businesses to tap into new markets and attract international tourists. However, challenges such as digital literacy, data privacy concerns, and the need for government support remain prevalent. Collaboration between the public and private sectors is crucial in driving digital transformation and fostering sustainable growth in the Turkish tourism industry. While the qualitative nature of this study limits generalizability, future research endeavors could explore longitudinal trends, conduct comparative studies across regions, and investigate the role of emerging technologies. Overall, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the impact of digital innovations on the Turkish tourism sector and provides valuable insights for academia, industry practitioners, and policymakers alike.

Development of Cultural and Faith Tourism in SCO and Turkic States: Uzbekistan's Potential and the Exemplary Turkish Case

This article treats Turkish tourism sector's recent changes, focusing on its increasing relationships with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries and Turkic states. The paper examines about Turkiye's efforts to expand its tourism partnerships beyond its traditional European allies and emphasizes its cooperation with SCO member countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Furthermore, it underlines Turkey's efforts to revive the ancient Silk Road—particularly through the "Middle Corridor" plan—in an effort to increase Turkic states' cultural, economic, and tourist collaboration. Cultural and religious tourism in the Turkic states is highlighted, with a particular emphasis on Turkiye and Uzbekistan. The paper concludes with practical proposals to further develop of cultural and faith tourism, i.e. effective promotional campaigns, cheap flights, and visa-free travel. Generally, the article provides a thorough overview of Turkiye's ever expanding tourism sector as well as its strategic efforts to promote significant cooperation within the SCO region.

Turkey at the crossroads: a study of geopolitics and tourism re-alignment

ABSTRACT This article examines the development of tourism in Turkey. It focuses mainly on the relationship between the country’s shifting geopolitical alignment and the recent changes in the countries of origin of its international tourist clientele. The study outlines geopolitical aspects of tourism, highlighting how it can be part of government strategies to reflect shifting geopolitical alliances and relationships. In the case of Turkey, there has been something of a move away from Europe and NATO towards enhanced relations with Russia and China. The article draws on an analysis of official statistics, interviews with key stakeholders in the Turkish tourism sector and direct field observations at tourist sites.

Dependence of the Turkish Tourism Sector on Five Countries of Origin and Tourism Demand

Because of its fragile structure, tourism is a sector where tourist arrivals fluctuate, and competition is high. Tourism demand is changing rapidly according to many different factors. Most of the tourist arrivals to Turkey are from European countries. This paper analyzes the relationship between tourist arrivals from countries of origin and basic macroeconomic variables in the period between 2010-2020. The study, which uses the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) boundaries testing approach, shows that tourist arrivals interact with key macroeconomic variables such as exchange rate and unemployment rate. This situation reveals the necessity of eliminating dependence on certain countries in the tourism sector and turning to different markets.

Information system selection for hospitality industry via integrated use of IVIF-DEMATEL and IVIF-TOPSIS

Like the other industries, information technologies are very important tools for the hotels’ success in the tourism industry. Various processes required for the hotel business can be integrated by using a proper system, and simultaneous data transfer among different channels can be facilitated. Due to its contribution in creating value for the customers and the increasing efficiency of the processes, substantial investments in information technologies are planned by the hotel management. Like most operation management problems, evaluation and selection of proper hotel information systems require considering multiple criteria. Also, considering the uncertainty inherent to the problem and difficulties during the evaluation process, an integrated IVIF-DEMATEL and IVIF-TOPSIS approach is utilized in this paper. The IVIF-DEMATEL is used for the criteria evaluation, and the weight determination phase and IVIF-TOPSIS is used to evaluate hotel information systems alternatives. An application for the Turkish tourism sector’s case is realized, and the results of the methodology are compared with the IVIF-VIKOR approach.

HOW DID COVID-19 PANDEMIC AFFECT THE TOURISM INDEX IN BORSA ISTANBUL?

This study aims to determine how and to what extent the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the Turkish tourism sector index in Borsa İstanbul. Daily data for the period from March 27th 2020 to December 31st 2020 were used to find the relationship between the dependent variable (BIST tourism stock index) and the independent variables (Covid-19 cases and deaths in Turkey). The cointegration relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and the BIST tourism index was investigated with the ARDL bound test. In addition, the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the BIST tourism index was tested with the Cointegrating Regression Models. As a result of the ARDL bound test, it was determined that there is a long-term cointegration relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and the BIST tourism index. In addition, it has been determined that the impact of the short-term shocks caused by Covid-19 on the BIST tourism index will disappear in the long term and will balance again in about a week. According to the Cointegrating Regression Models (FMOLS, DOLS and CCR) results, it is seen that the deaths from Covid-19 significantly affect the tourism index. According to the models, a 1% increase in the number of deaths causes the BIST tourism index to decrease by 0.08%, 0.06% and 0.08%, respectively. The coefficient of the number of Covid-19 cases is not significant, showing that the number of cases does not have a sufficient effect on the tourism index. The findings of the paper have some implications for stock investors, policy makers, academicians and the company owners in the tourism index of Borsa Istanbul.

Trilogy: Passive Leadership, Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave

Turkey is one of the major global tourism markets. Recent research reveals that the employees of the Turkish tourism sector are dissatisfied with their jobs and employee turnover rates of the sector are very high, even higher than other sectors. Employee job satisfaction and retention are crucial challenges that face the tourism sector success and therefore they are in the focus of scholar interest. This study proposes to investigate the extent to which employees’ intention to leave the organization are related to the job satisfaction and perceived passive leadership behaviors. As a result of the research conducted with 472 employees in the tourism sector in Istanbul, it was determined that the perceived passive leadership behaviors of the managers decreased employees’ job satisfaction and increased their intention to leave. It was also found that job satisfaction has a partial mediating effect between perceived passive leadership and intention to leave.

A Study on the Use of Tourism as a Soft Power Instrument in International Relations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the political crisis between the Russian Federation and Turkey in 2015 on the tourism sector in the latter. The political crisis was sparked by shooting down of a Russian military aircraft by the Turkish warplanes on the Turkish – Syrian border in November 2015. During that period, the Russian Federation implemented a number of decisions, one of which was a travel ban to Turkey, and this negatively impacted the Turkish tourism sector, particularly in Antalya. The research involved obtaining information on how tourism was used as a soft power instrument by the Russian Federation as a deterrent. A qualitative method was used, as well as phenomenology. The data were collected through a semi-structured survey that included five themes about which the selected tourism partners in Turkey were interviewed. For the research, with its subcategories of tourists and tour operators, tourism is regarded as a soft power instrument. The findings show that political crises have negative reflections on the tourism sector. This paper may assist researchers who interested in studying tourism within international relations.

The relationship between cooperative and competitive behavioral tendencies and trust in coworkers

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the relationship between cooperative and competitive behavioral tendencies and trust of coworkers in organizations. Two main hypotheses were developed. The first hypothesis was that cooperativeness and trust in coworkers is positively correlated. The second hypothesis was that competitiveness and trust in coworkers is negatively correlated.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was 442 Turkish tourism sector employees in a labor-intensive industry. Two scales were used to measure trust in coworkers and cooperativeness/competitiveness. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to understand how individuals' behavioral tendency affects their coworkers' trust in them.FindingsThe findings strongly supported the first hypothesis, in that cooperativeness was positively correlated with trust in coworkers. The second hypothesis was only partially supported because there was no significant relationship between competitiveness and the competency and trustworthiness dimensions of trust. Unselfishness aspect of trust, however, was negatively correlated with competitiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe main contribution of this study is to show that employee cooperativeness and competitiveness can affect trust in coworker relations. However, the measurement of competitiveness and cooperativeness measurement had limitations due to differences in the culture-specific meanings of cooperation and competition. Future research employing mixed methods research is needed to further explain the content of the two tendencies and the relationship between the concepts.Originality/valueThe literature on trust and employee relations tends to focus more on the issue of trust between managers and subordinates while neglecting the complex and multifaceted structure of trust in employee–employer relations. However, new working forms mean that horizontal relations are increasingly important. Therefore, more research is needed to address the tendencies and structures that affect trust in coworkers. This study draws attention to the potential role of cooperative and competitive behaviors in trust in horizontal employee relations.

MARKETING PROBLEMS OF ACCOMMODATION ESTABLISHMENTS: A RESEARCH IN THE DISTRICT OF SAFRANBOLU

Tourism which is a developing and growing sector provides many benefits to the national economy. Playing an important role in the national economy and the development of regions; tourism sector is managed by several establishments. In this respect, accommodation establishments are the leading businesses. Together with the developing national economies, technological progresses and the increasing competition; accommodation establishments have concentrated on marketing studies for the purpose of keeping hold of their present customers, finding new customers and sustaining their activities. This condition brings along some problems; marketing problems in particular. In this study, it is aimed to determine the marketing problems of accommodation establishments operating in the district of Safranbolu, which plays an important role in the Turkish tourism sector. According to that purpose, a questionnaire study was conducted in the accommodation establishments in Safranbolu and the data were analyzed.

A suggestion for financial condition index for Turkish tourism sector

Purpose- When the economic structures and growth behaviors of the countries are examined, it is seen that the countries with the advantage in the tourism sector have achieved significant role if they give the necessary importance to this sector. It is insufficient and incomplete to consider the issue only in terms of macroeconomic indicators. In our study, we think that this sector should take place in the plans made by considering this sector and should be followed carefully. When the world literature is examined, it is seen that tourism financial conditions index has been developed and it has taken place in finance literature. However, we believe that we need to be taking into consideration of terrorism for this index in countries like Turkey. In our study, we introduce a new index by extension with terror variable to the tourism financial conditions index which is used and developed in the literature. Methodology– In this study, Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), Composite Leading Indicator (CLI) Consumer Price Index (CPI), Real Effective Exchange Rate (REE), number of tourist arrivals (ARV) and number of terrorist attacks (TRR) for the period between 2004:01–2017:12 are used. The Factor Analysis is used to determine the direction of the coefficients of variables. The main purpose of data normalization is to guarantee the quality of the data before it is subjected to any analysis. In the study, min-max and z score methods, which are the most commonly used statistical normalization methods, were used in the normalization of variables. Findings- According to factor analysis findings, only terror variable affects negatively on the TFCI. Other variables affect positively on the TFCITwo composite indicators were formed from the combination of the variables obtained as a result of standardization. These two variables are different in structure. Both composite indicators are made primarily from seasonal effects of the removal process. Conclusion- As a result, Factor analysis is used to determine the direction of the coefficients of the variables that form the index. According to factor analysis findings, only terror variable affects negatively on the TFCI. And then two separate standardization methods were used to form the composite indicator. These are Z-standardization and Min-Max method. The variables obtained with both methods have seasonal effects, also the seasonally adjusted indices are reported.

The Funding Structure of Turkish Tourism Sector and a Model Proposal for Tourism Revenue

For decades Turkey has strived for increasing tourism revenues with the ultimate aim to reduce the current account deficit. Turkish governments have offered several incentives such as reduced utility prices, funding alternatives for tourism investments and reduced tax rates, while pursuing policies aimed at eliminating any bureaucratic barriers that may hinder growth in the tourism sector. An official document which incorporates an ambitious and extremely detailed plan to achieve 50 million tourist arrivals and revenues of USD 50 billion by 2023 is on the agenda. This paper is prepared for contributing to the literature on tourism economics based on Turkey which is rare. The aim of this study is twofold; firstly the debut analysis of the funding structure of Turkish tourism sector is realized by using the aggregate balance sheet of 555 tourism companies. Then, a model is proposed by using the linear regression by which the effects of the variables of public incentive disbursements, terrorism index, Real Effective Foreign Exchange Rate, Share of Loans to Tourism Sector in Total Loans provided by financial system, average expenditure incurred by tourist and the tourism receipt level of major and geographically more substitute competitor of Greece on Tourism revenue level is examined.

Turizm Sektöründe Strateji Seçimi için Bulanık Veriler Yardımıyla Hiyerarşik Ağ Modeli ve SWOT Analizi: Türkiye Örneği

Tourism sector is very important for Turkey economy because of the size of domestic and foreign tourist number of Turkey. Turkey has been a key tourism point from past to present. It is located in both Asia and Europe continents and it has lots of naturel and historical resources. In this paper, we analyzed Turkish tourism sector in a hierarchical network model which was integrated with SWOT analysis with its strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats branches in concept of Turkish 10th Five Years Development Plan’s for selecting the most suitable tourism strategy. In this study the hierarchical model was analyzed by triangular numbers. Firstly, model’s criteria and sub-criteria were analyzed by fuzzy AHP, and secondly they analyzed by fuzzy ANP. In conclusion, the results were compared and the ratings and ordering of the alternative tourism strategies were presented.

The Effects of the Russian Crisis on Turkish Tourism Sector: A Case of Antalya Province, Turkey

The Effects of the Russian Crisis on Turkish Tourism Sector: A Case of Antalya Province, Turkey

Empirical analysis of interaction between promotion expenditures and tourism the case of Turkey

The Turkish tourism sector is among the first places in international markets in terms of number of visiting tourists. But the same situation is not valid in terms of tourism revenue. At this point, tourism promotion becomes important for the Turkish economy. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism arranges promotional activities in different regions of the world to increase the number of tourists and revenue of tourism sector. But it is possible to interpret that tourism demand is not sufficient compare to potential of the country because of absence of effective and planned promotion policy. The aim of this study is to test interaction between tourism promotion expenditures, tourism revenue and number of tourists by employing recently developed Vector Autoregressive based Toda–Yamamoto and conventional Granger causality methods. In the study, annual data belonging to period between years 1990 and 2012 is used. Results of the empirical analyses give evidences about the relation between tourism promotion expenditures, tourism revenue and number of tourists. Findings obtained from both conventional Granger and Toda – Yamamoto causality tests imply that there is a causation linkage running from tourism promotion expenditures to number of tourists visiting Turkey. Results also indicate that there is no causal relationship between tourism promotion expenditures and tourism revenue. Keywords: Tourism, tourism demand, promotion expenditure, tourism income JEL Classification: C22,L83,Z33

Minimum Turnover Analysis in Turkish Tourism Sector

The main purpose of this study is to detect and analyze the minimum turnover in Turkish tourism sector regarding sociodemographic, professional, business and geography specialties of the workers. The ratio of the sum of the staff who changes only once in a year in one position in one business and the total number of the staff who work during the same period is expressed with minimum turnover rate and a new perspective is introduced to the literature. In the study, data belonging to a total of 5764 wageworkers who work at lodging companies, travel agencies and tour operators with food and beveragefirms are used. Data are imported from the data set of 2011 Household Labor Survey (HLS) from Turkish Statistical Institute and are subjected to Cross-tabs, Chi-Square, Annova and T-test analysis by SPSS software program. It is found that there are significantdifferences between turnover rate and sociodemographic, professional, business and geographical characteristics.

Gastronomy Tourism as an Alternative Tourism: An Assessment on the Gastronomy Tourism Potential of Turkey

Gastronomy tourism, besides being the most important means of economic development, it is also the most significant part of the fastly developing cultural tourism market. Many recent researches emphasized that the culinary culture of a target destination has a significant part in the travel experience. Travelling for the purpose of experiencing the new and unbelievable food, wine and other inimitable local gastronomy assets of another region is gastronomy tourism. In Turkey, tourism policies had been limited to the coastal mass tourism in the coastal zones of Aegean and Mediterranean regions, utilizing sea, sand and sun potentials of the country, win the purpose of maximum contribution to the national economy, by attracting foreign tourists. Turkish Cuisine; in seven region with advantage of having different climates and vegetation, reserves diversity of local taste and flavour in its cuisine as well Turkish cuisine one of three top cuisine in the world. The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of marketing strategy of the traditional Turkish cultural cuisine as a alternative tourism field. Turkish articles with the subject of “gastronomy” published in “Google Scholar” and Council of Higher Education Thesis Centre or foreign articles regarding the gastronomy potential of Turkey and master’s and PhD thesis on the subject have been analysed within this research. A content analysis has been conducted as a result of the revision of the data gathered from 54 articles and 32 thesis within the scope of defined categories. Also method of frequency analysis has been utilised during the analysis of the data. According to the findings, gastronomy tourism has an important potential as a kind of alternative tourism for the Turkish tourism sector.

Emergence and Spread of an All-Inclusive System in the Turkish Tourism Sector and Strategic Responses of Accommodation Firms

This study investigates the effect of environmental pressures on the emergence and spread of the all-inclusive system (AIS) in the Turkish tourism sector, and the strategic responses given by accommodation firms in the Antalya region. Accommodation firms face pressures from external actors (institutional perspective), while also being dependent on other organizations (resource dependence perspective) in ensuring the smooth performance of their activities under the conditions of high environmental uncertainty. An integrated perspective of neo-institutional theory and resource-dependence theory is employed to examine the national, institutional and organizational contexts that are assumed to be influential in the emergence and spread of AIS, with both qualitative and quantitative research methods being used. The major findings of the study indicate that economic and political changes in the national context; coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures in the institutional context; and strategic responses of accommodation firms to environmental pressures in the organizational context have been influential in the emergence and spread of AIS. The study concludes with a summary of the theoretical and practical implications, and suggestions for future research.

The Effects of European Economic Crisis on the Tourism Travel Companies in Turkey

While proceeding toward completion of European Union (EU) as unified single state, major European Countries have come across with an unexpected economic crisis. In the course of this unfortunate developments, European unification as single state has become a controversial issue. There have been many reasons for that outcome. However, among explicit and implicit reasons, we could claim that leading industrialized EU countries have managed the process rather unsuccessfully. The appearant reasons for the recent outbreak of economic crises within the economic and monetary union could be cited as; differences in economic development levels within the EU countries, having an unproductive economy, excessive public expenditures & debts, and soon.It is expected that reflection of economic crisis from Greece, Italy and similar vulnerable EU countries could affect Turkey's economy adversely. In actual fact, half of the Turkey's export, 60% of all tourism revenues, 80% of foreign direct capital realization originates from EU countries. For these and similar reasons, Turkey wishes that EU would be relieved from this unfortunate economic crisis. Within the context of the above defined subject, it was intended to assess and measure the effects of European Crisis on the Turkish Tourism sector and relevant tourism companies that operating in this field.An empirical study has been made for the assessment of effects of economic crises on the expected changes of management, revenues, expenditures, employees and customers of tourism companies. The whole coaching bus companies operating in Turkey have been included in the scope of this study. The existing study is limited to only 200 coaching bus companies that have taken part in the survey. In this study, data collection has been made with survey method. The collected data has been assessed and analyzed statistically with SPSS software program.Resultant research has indicated that 200 touristic coaching companies that have been operating in domestic and foreign tours, have not been affected dramatically from recent EU economic crisis. One could say that, EU economic crisis has not narrowed the activity field of Turkish Tourism companies considerably, and compensation for the deficits was made with the marginal increase in the domestic coaching activities.

Tourism potential of Gazipasa (Antalya - Turkey)

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine natural, historical and cultural attractions of Gazipasa district and to suggest the possibilities to add the attractions like caves, water sources, flora and faunas to the tourism. Its historical and cultural attractions include antique cities, ruins, tombs and graves, plateaus, hand arts and traditional clothes. Inspite of all these attractions role of Gazipasa in the tourism sector is not on the right level. Therefore tourism potential of Gazipasa district was investigated in order to bring it to a better level in Turkish tourism sector and suggestions are made for necessary investments in this connection.