A field study for the sufficiency of animation services in the four and five star hotel managements

Nowadays, the need for the labor force has decreased because of the developing technology and so the term ?free time? has appeared. That?s to say, there has been an increase on the national income of the countries with the help of the industry development. As a result of this development, people have spent more time on free time activities such as culture, sport, entertainment and tourism. Tourism, one of the most essential parts of our life in the recent days, has fashioned an important holiday and entertainment culture for people.People are free about their free time activities. The visitors, who come to a tourist facility after a tiring and stressed business life, want to have an alteration and liveliness in their life. After a while, they will get bored of swimming and here it is; the animation services will step in. Animation means ?keep somebody alive, restore someone to life, and motivate? as a term. It includes the entertaining, re-creative and refreshing activities that provide to save tourists from the results of physiological, cultural and psychological experiences in their daily life.In the first part of this study, ?analysis of time and free time?, ?evaluation of free time?, and ?animation and recreation terms? have been examined. In the second part, animation theory, general characteristics of animation services, its functions and process, management of animation services, factors that affect the success of the animation, and finally the necessary characteristics of the animation staff have been examined in depth. As for the third part of the study, it has been dwelled on the term ?hotel? and the classification of the hotel managements has been examined. After this examination, it has been talked about the four and five-star hotel managements and the organization structure and qualifications of them have been analyzed. Finally, in the fourth part, a field study has been done to determine the sufficiency of the animation services in the four and five-star hotel managements in Bodrum.While this thesis study has been written, first of all, the theory part has been organized by making a literature review and survey method has been used as a data collection technique in the research part. The research has been done in the four and five hotel managements situated in Bodrum. It has been benefitted from definitional statistics and analysis of variance for this study. Analysis results have been acquired and commented by using SPSS 17 statistics package programme. According to the results of the study, the animation services in the four and five star hotel managements have an important impact on the tourists to extend the residence time. In addition, it has been proven that the visitors have preferred the hotel again and adopted it, and also spend extra money in the hotel thanks to these animation services.Key terms: Animation, Hotel, Tourism, Time