A research study on Turkish tourists for the marketing of Chios Island in terms of tourism

The objective of this study is to evaluate the current touristic status of Chios island and present suggestions taking in hand the prespective of Turkish tourists. Chios island is located in the eastern Aegean sea opposite the Coasts of Çeşme. Chios due to its features entered in the map of the tourism world just in 80's. The touristic model of the island rests on the sea sun model, but during the last 30 years did achieve to gain even country wide fame ad a touristic destination. The last years, after the removal of the difficulties in visa to the Turkish citizens, the proximity of the island to the Turkish coasts provided an advantadge in the Turkish touristic market and became an attractive destination to be discovered by the Turkish people. Now the majority of the visitors of Chios island come from Turkey. However the not diversified touristic product of Chios island combined with the existing lack of critical infrastructures affects the satisfaction level of the Turkish tourists. Within the scope of this thesis was carried out a field study to measure the satisfaction of Turkish tourists. Turkish tourist know the island enough and is satisfied by the offered services and touristic product but still the satisfaction levels can rise higher and they can spend more money. In order Chios island to be developed in terms of tourism, reforms and actions in three separate but interconnected sectors must be done. The recovery and enlarging of existing infrastructure is the first priority that must be combined also with the correct education of the personel working in touristic sector. After creating a stratejik plan for tourism the touristic product must be diversified. When the identity of the product will be specified then this product must be promoted in existing and new markets with the use of the correct marketing communication tools. Finally the implementation of these three main actions must be controlled periodically by a coordinating comitee. In the first part of this thesis tourism and marketing terminology are presented. In the second part Chios island profile, statistcs, SWOT and PEST analysis are discussed. The performed research is presented in the third part. At the last part of this thesis the conclusions and suggestions about the touristic development of Chios island are discussed.