Travel Agencies Use of Internet in North Cyprus

ABSTRACT: This study explores the usage of Social-Networking-Sites (SNS) and Internet of North Cyprus travel agencies. For this purpose, the researcher has contacted with KITSAB which is an union organization for travel agencies and every legal travel agency has to be member of this organization. KITSAB categorizes travel agencies into two groups. This categorization has been made according to business model that is chosen by travel agencies by KITSAB. These business models are; either organizing touristic tours from and/or to North Cyprus and selling flight tickets. Members of this category are called Group A category. The other category is called Group B and the only difference between Group A category agencies is, the travel agencies of this category do not have right to organize touristic tours from and/or to North Cyprus. The major aim of this study is 124 “group A” travel agencies social media channels investigated. Than as a minor subject visual advertisements of Group A agencies analyzed to find out the representation of North Cyprus into the tourist market. Content analysis method was used to examine the Internet use of travel agencies. List of travel agencies of Group A category was gathered from KITSAB. Every travel agency has been searched via Google‟s search engine and certain SNS. The findings show the majority of Group A category travel agencies (63.7%) use the Internet tools. However the frequency of usage shows the majority of these agencies are not using in daily basis. Keywords: Tourism, Social Media, Travel Agencies, Representation. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………