The effect of generations on preferring recreaction activities: An application on tourism workers

There are five generations based on generational theories, which have the idea that people who have lived through the same historical, social and cultural events and have experiences related to them due to being born in similar time periods, have similar behavior and thinking styles, and similar attitudes and perceptions. The world views of the people in each of this generation classification may be different, and their preferences for recreational activities may also differ from each other. The nature of recreational activities is associated with people. Considering the people performing recreational activities, it is thought that there will be differences arising from generational differences. In addition, the interaction with the concept of tourism, which is one of the biggest resources of the recreation phenomenon, is high. Tourism employees, one of the stakeholders of this interaction, directly serve many recreational activities and the realization of these activities. It is possible that there are generational differences, as it may be related to the individual experiences of recreational activities and tourism employees that meet at many common points in determining the recreational activity to be performed. From this point of view, the main purpose of this study is to examine the recreational activities preferences of tourism workers within the scope of generation theories. In the study, interviews were conducted with a total of 45 individuals, 15 each from the X, Y and Z generations, in order to understand the differences that may occur in the recreational activity preferences of generational differences with the interview form prepared by considering the relevant generation theories and recreation literature. The data obtained were analyzed and compared within the framework of generation theories, and as a result of one-to-one interviews with the X, Y and Z generation tourism workers participating in the research, it was determined that there were differences between recreational activity preferences.