The Effect of the Cultural Values on the Destination Image: A Search in Eskisehir 2013 Turkish World Capital of Culture

Abstract

As the destination images being dynamic and changeable, continuous researches should be conducted in order to measure and progress the images in the context of tourism marketing. The aim of this study is to analyze the tourists’ characters and behaviors who direct through the cultural destinations and to determine the relationship between the visitors’ perceptions of cultural values and destination image. Based on this purpose, a questionnaire was held on the foreign cullture tourist who visited Eskisehir, chosen as the 2013 Turkish World Capital of Culture. The data obtained were evaluated using analysis methods such as frequency, arithmetic mean, reliability, regression, independent samples t-test, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA). The results obtain from these analysis have shown that many of the participants have used internet as a source of information and travelled to explore new cultures. On the one hand the most affecting cultural values of the destination image was emotional values.