A Research on the Middle East Market within the Context of Turkey Tourism

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to reveal Middle Eastern tourists' place among the target market of local tourism establishments at Ayder tourism center in the province of Rize and local tourism establishments’ perceptions of Middle Eastern tourists based on the growth in the number of tourists from the Middle East. The study also aims to find out whether there is sufficient diversity of products and services for the target market and how local tourism establishments segment the market. As a method of data collection, semi-structured interviews were used. 16 different types of hospitality businesses representatives and 3 restaurants / fast food representatives located in the research region have been interviewed. Deductive thematic analysis technique was used in the analysis of data. In this regard, tourism establishments interviewed could group the tourists based on 13 market segmentation variables except gender. Different answers were received regarding the target market of tourism establishments and none of the tourism operators mentioned Middle Eastern tourists as the target market. Finally, it was found out that the vast majority of tourism establishments have been applying undifferentiated marketing strategy.