A perception of convention in Ankara

The porpuse of this study is to investigate the existing and potential situation of convention tourism in Ankara and to find out how far public institutions have reached their targets.The material of the study for which survey method has been used is composed by 51 participants who accepted to take part in the survey including convention organization managers of 14 five-star hotels and 4 four-star hotels which can provide convention oppurtunity for more than 200 people, 6 travel bureau officer who are members of international congress and convention unity, 1 congress and convention center manager, representatives of non-governmental organizations who demand congresses and conventions, personel of public and private institutions, bank officers, and academics.Questionnaire form has been used as the data collection tool of the study. The questionnaire form developed by ?Sung-Ae Jung? in his thesis ?THE PERCEPTION OF KOREA AS A CONVENTION DESTINATION? for the master of Arts degree in the University of Nevada, William F. Harrah Hotel Administration graduate program has been translated to Turkish and used for this study. Cronbach?s Alpha reliability test has been conducted. Rates between 0,709 and 0,805 have been obtained. The significance of the questions and Ankara?s existing performance has been revealed by significance-performance analysis.Ankara shopping facilities and affordability ofhe region are important but Ankara is not enough for these matters.The areas which are important for Ankara and its performance is good at are; service standards in hotels, food quality, personal security levels, transportation, hospitality, having internationally standard convention facilities and image of the region.According to the results, authentic cultural remains, natural beauty and alternative leisure time activities are the areas which Ankara,s performance 'is not good enough and which are not very important.Taking into account these results, some suggestions to keep the current sutiation and develop them.Key Words: Importance-Performance Test, Ankara, Convention Tourism