Child recreation: A research in resort hotels in the context of play behavior

In this research, children's play behaviors in resort hotels are evaluated in the context of Cognitive Play Theory and the concept of child recreation is tried to be created. The research is important in terms of introducing the concept of child recreation to the tourism sector and determining the compatibility of children's activities in hotels with play theories. In this research, the "mixed method", in which qualitative and quantitative methods are used together, has been applied and the population has been determined as resort hotels in Antalya. Purposeful, snowball and convenience sampling techniques have been used for the sample selected from the population. As a result of the applications, a total of 5258 observations, 490 questionnaires and 20 interview data have been obtained from 16 different hotels. Content analysis and descriptive analysis have been used together in the analysis of the interview data, and the quantitative data have been subjected to frequency analysis. At the end of the research, It has been concluded that there are 43 different types of plays and activities that children play in hotels, and 13 different playgrounds and activity areas are used for these plays. It is also among the results achieved that children's activities in hotels are organized within a program. According to the other results obtained, the children's plays offered in the hotels are not planned randomly, but according to the principles of Cognitive Play Theory. Children can wait and be patient in the play, express themselves, play confidently and under the supervision of a leader or independently. In addition, It has been determined that children are offered "digital games" in hotels, but they mostly play "physical games". Based on these results, It has been seen that the children's activities given in the hotels meet the principles of play theories and recreation elements, and the idea of using the concept of child recreation instead of children's activities is supported.