A qualitative research on determining the elements which have effect on disabled tourists' memorable tourism experience

Although the concept of tourism experience is a significant phenomenon in the tourism research, the studies about the disabled tourists' memorable tourism experience are very limited. In the national literature, there was not seen any study about memorable tourism experience for disabled tourists. In our country, considering that aproximately 12% of our population is people with disabilities, It is important that to make preporations towards people with disabilities who have potential to participate in tourism activities. The purpose of this study is to reveal the elements which have effect on the memorable tourism experience and to understand the nature of disabled tourists' memorable tourism experience. At the same time, it is also intended to gain a different perspective on tourism experience literature that the concept of memorable tourism experience looking at by disabled tourists, to reveal the elements which have effect on tourism experience and to conceptualize what is the meaning of memorable tourism experience for people with disabilities. The research was conducted with 20 Russian tourists in Antalya which included Alanya, Side, Belek, Kemer, Kundu tourism regions between June – September 2014. The interviewees consisted of physically handicapped, orthopedic handicapped, deaf, hearing and speech impaired and vision impaired tourists. Within the framework of qualitative approach, data were collected by semi-structured interviews, focus groups and document analysis. As a result of the implementation of qualitative researches' data were content analyzed, the elements which have effect on disabled tourists' memorable tourism experience 3 main themes (psychological, socio-cultural and elements of the destination) were obtained. The analysis results were evaluated and interpreted by literature support. If the study's findings were summarised; It was found that elements of the destination were the most important theme which effects markedly disabled tourists' memorable travel experience, psychological problems that have been created by the negative experience of disabled tourists' that have a profound impact on the disabled tourists' memorable experiences, and instead of participating in the organisations were arranged separately from non-disabled tourists, disabled tourists who were desired to facilities which can be established social interactions with people from different cultures and having an atmosphere of social interaction was extremely important in tourism experience. The results suggest that some of the elements which have effect on disabled tourists' memorable experience, were similar with non-disabled tourists and the results also showed that there are significant differences. The findings have given a different dimension to researches which were made in tourism literature of the fields of disabled tourists' memorable experience. Besides, it is the first study whose findings are also extremely important that reflecting the different cultural characteristics' on the disabled tourists' tourism experience.On the other hand, the elements that make disabled tourists' tourism experience as memorable that can provide significant benefits to people and organisations which are responsible for development of tourism destinations. Key words; Tourism, experience, Memorable experience, Disabled tourists, Antalya, Qualitative research