An empirical research on the satisfaction level of French tourists participating in Anatolian tours, derived from tourist guidance services

170 ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to reveal the insights of consumer satisfaction derived from the tourist guidance services, which play an indispensable and significant role in tourism industry, and to provide further suggestions for consumer satisfaction. In this study, details of the profession of tourist guidance have been focused on by dwelling on why people travel, the development of the profession of tourist guidance in terms of chronological order in Turkey and world-wide. By studying thoroughly the place and the importance of guidance in tours, it has been tried to reveal the contributive factors of tourist guidance services in tours. Services of tourist guidance, being the cultural representatives of tourism sector, working for tour operators or travel agencies, have been explained on theoretical frame in that customer expectations and perceptions, and finally perceived service quality and consumer satisfaction have been associated. In the empirical part of the study, what French tourists who participated in Anatolian tours being the part of the product tours operators have been offering in Turkey destination perceived from the service of tourists guidance and then perceived service quality approaches have been examined and finally in the frame of dimensions of SERVQUAL (Service Quality), level of satisfaction derived from the guidance services has been searched in depth. Service quality perceptions of the consumers participating in Anatolian tours in Turkey have outweighed the expectations positively. That's to say, it has been shown that they have been quite satisfied by the guidance services they got in Turkey. ^s^k "*