Evaluation of the opinions of tourism enterprises about Syrian refugees in Gaziantep

In 2011, after the civil war in Syria he had been forced to leave their homes and countries, and many millions of Syrians began to emigrate to Turkey. Due to its geographic proximity, the province of Gaziantep has become both a transition zone and one of the provinces that accept Syrian refugees the most. Gaziantep is also featured with attractive destinations in Turkey, especially among the gastronomic tourism. For this reason, in this thesis, how tourism enterprises evaluate Syrian refugees is investigated. In this context, the main purpose of the study is to evaluate the phenomenon of migration and Syrian refugees by the tourism enterprises operating in Gaziantep, and to investigate their attitudes and thoughts and to determine the situation. The questionnaire form developed in line with the aforementioned purpose was applied to 519 tourism employees in Gaziantep tourism enterprises between August and October 2020, based on the convenience sampling method. As a result of the empirical analysis, it was determined that the scale developed to evaluate the effects of tourism workers on the effects of Syrian refugees on Gaziantep tourism consists of 22 proposals and 6 dimensions: "Destination Image, Supply of Basic Needs, Its Effect on Gaziantep Tourism, Its Effect on the City Atmosphere, Characteristics of Refugees, Advertising and Loyalty". It was determined that the second scale developed regarding the general views of tourism workers about Syrian refugees consists of 3 propositions and 1 dimension: "General Opinions of the Workers on Refugees". After determining the normal distribution, T test, one-way analysis of variance and correlation analysis tests were applied. It was investigated whether there was a statistically significant difference according to the demographic characteristics of tourism workers, and then a correlation analysis was made between the scale developed to evaluate the effects of tourism workers on Syrian refugees' tourism in Gaziantep and the scale developed for the general views of tourism workers about Syrian refugees. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the evaluations of the Syrian refugees regarding the effects of the tourism on Gaziantep tourism were generally positive, but their general views were negative and the acceptance and adaptation process did not occur at the desired level. Finally, various suggestions are presented based on the findings of the research. Key words: Tourism Businesses, Tourism, Syrian Refugees, Gaziantep