The relationship between unforgettable tourism experience and behavioural intentions and visitor satisfaction within the scope of cultural heritage tourism: the case of göbeklitepe

The tourist experience is generally positioned as a memory generator. Memories of the tourist experience, apart from perhaps a few souvenirs or photographs, have been the most important memorable outcome for tourists after the tour. Memorable experiences of the travel experience are the most important source of information for an individual in terms of satisfaction, decision to revisit and word of mouth. Providing good and memorable experiences is critical for the competitiveness of tourism suppliers. The application area of this research is Göbeklitepe cultural heritage site located within the borders of Şanlıurfa. The aim of the study is to examine the impact of memorable tourism experiences of tourists visiting Göbeklitepe, an important historical and cultural heritage site of Şanlıurfa, on satisfaction, intention to revisit and word-of-mouth communication intention. The research data were obtained from 430 domestic tourists who visited Göbeklitepe by questionnaire technique, which is one of the quantitative research methods. As a result of the analysis of the data obtained, it was determined that domestic tourists who visited Göbeklitepe had an memorable tourism experience and were satisfied with this experience. This has revealed that memorable tourism experiences have a positive effect on their satisfaction. Another result of the study is that memorable tourism experiences have a positive effect on behavioural intentions (revisit intention and word-of-mouth intention). These results suggest that unforgettable tourism experiences have a positive effect on tourists' intention to visit the place again after their satisfaction during their travels and their intention to recommend it to others.