Evaluation of Afyonkarahisar province by means of SWOT analysis from the thermal tourism perspective

As a result of increasing international tourism arrivals, the tourism sector has become one of the fastest growing sector among other sectors. So, competitiveness of a destination that has unique touristic resources depends on its strategic decisions within the scope of sustainable policies. On the other hand, to manage a touristic destination, it is vital to analyze the existing tourism sector and its future. Within the scope of strategic management, SWOT analyze is an important technique serving for this purpose. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to analyze Afyonkarahisar?s thermal tourism with SWOT technique in terms of participants? views. With this regard, the staff working in thermal hotels licensed from Culture and Tourism Ministry constitutes the population of this study. In the analysis of data collected through the survey, frequency-percentage distribution, mean and standard deviation values were used, for the measurement of differences among groups ?t-test? and ?Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)? and for the determination of the reasons of the differences Duncan test were used.According to the findings of the data collected in the study, the views of participants about SWOT analyze of Afyonkarahisar thermal tourism vary according to age groups in weaknesses. The views of participants about SWOT analyze of Afyonkarahisar thermal tourism also vary according to departments in strengths, opportunities and threats.Key words: Thermal tourism, SWOT analyze, destination, Afyonkarahisar.