Cultural tourism in Gaziantep: Evaluation of domestic tourists perceptions

With the development and changing of the tourism sector day by day, it is increasing in the competition among the tourism destinations. Countries that want to keep up with the changes experienced in this competitive environment and generate more revenue from tourism have started to look for new products and markets in tourism. In addition, today, with the increase in the level of education of people and the developments in technology and transportation, the tourist profile is changing and entering into different quests.In this context, different types of tourism have started to gain importance for countries.Cultural tourism has also become an indispensable tourism type for many countries among these types of tourism. Considering the cultural values of Gaziantep, cultural tourism should be developed in the city.In order to develop cultural tourism in a region, tourists' perceptions about cultural tourism are so important that they cannot be ignored. The main purpose of this study is to examine the current situation of cultural tourism in Gaziantep and to determine the perception of local tourists visiting Gaziantep as a cultural destination for Gaziantep. However, according to the travel experience of local tourists, how they evaluate Gaziantep and satisfaction levels are the other objectives of the study. Furthermore, the study of whether there is a significant relationship between the dimensions of the scale that constitutes cultural perceptions, whether cultural perceptions and levels of satisfaction differed according to demographic characteristics, and the suggestions that will contribute to the development of cultural tourism in Gaziantep are among the other objectives of this study. For these purposes, 852 domestic tourists visited Gaziantep between August 2017 and October 2017 were surveyed. Data obtained from surveys were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 for Windows statistical package program. In this context, the survey data were evaluated by using reliability analysis, factor analysis, averages of expressions and standard deviation values, and also subjected to correlation and difference analysis. In this study, factor analysis was applied to the scale prepared for the evaluation of perceptions of local tourists regarding Gaziantep as a cultural destination and three factors were collected as "cultural travel, the importance of cultural values, promotion and cultural activity deficiencies". As a result of this research, it was determined that the perceptions of local tourists regarding Gaziantep as a cultural destination are generally high and these perceptions differ according to their gender, age, educational status and monthly income status and they did not differ according to their marital status. According to the travel experiences, local tourists generally evaluated Gaziantep as good. In addition, it was determined that satisfaction levels were high and their satisfaction levels did not differ according to their demographic characteristics. The continuation of similar studies and the inclusion of tourists from abroad can contribute to the development of cultural tourism in the city. In addition, this study will contribute to the academic literature and will guide the decision makers in the tourism sector and it will be useful in forming new policies and strategies. Key Words: Gaziantep, culture tourism, perception, domestic tourist.