The role of memorable tour experience and vacation satisfaction in the relationship between tour guide performance and behavioral intention: The case of Mardin

Throughout history, people have traveled from one place to another for various reasons. While these travels were initially motivated by religious needs, after the industrial revolution they have evolved to see the people, structures and traditions of different cultures. Tourist guides are the people who convey the historical, natural and cultural values of the visited place to the visitors and accompany them from the beginning to the end of the trip. Tourist guides can influence visitors' tour experiences during the trip and lead to behavioral intentions such as revisiting, recommending and frequenting, which are considered important for a tour and destination. Therefore, the performance of a tourist guide on a tour is very important. Although there are studies on the performance of tourist guides, there is no study on the relationship between memorable tour experience and vacation satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of vacation satisfaction in the relationship between tourist guide performance, memorable tour experience and behavioral intention. It is thought that this study will contribute to the field in terms of how important the performance of the tourist guide is, especially in Mardin, where illegal guide activities are experienced. In order to obtain the data in the thesis, a questionnaire was applied and the questionnaires were collected face-to-face from 473 local visitors. Descriptive, validity, reliability, normality, explanatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted for demographic and scales. As a result of the analyses, it was found that personal appearance and knowledge, which are among the dimensions of tourist guide performance, have a significant effect on behavioral intentions, while presentation and communication skills and professional attitude and skills do not have a significant effect on behavioral intentions. In addition, when the mediating role of vacation satisfaction and memorable tour experience was examined, it was concluded that the professional attitude and skills dimension fully mediated vacation satisfaction and memorable tour experience in behavioral intentions, personal appearance and knowledge dimension partially mediated vacation satisfaction and memorable tour experience in behavioral intentions, and professional attitude and skills fully mediated vacation satisfaction and memorable tour experience.