Effects of branding on tourists' choice of tour operator: A research on English visitors to Sarıgerme

Today?s business environment is a very competitive environment where change has reached such fast and unexpected, non-estimated dimensions. In such a competitive and dynamic business world, it isn?t possible for companies to preserve their market presence and find niche markets in order to be superior in competition unless they leave their traditional marketing techniques and adopt themselves to the circumstances of this ever changing business environment. In today?s dynamic business world, all organizations are looking for better ways of marketing, in order to be superior in competition and increase customer loyalty.In such a fiercely competitive environment, tour operators have eventually begun to focus on their branding strategies rather than focusing on price based marketing strategies.In this case, branding is seen as an emerging marketing tool by professionals and scholars which can easily be used by tour operators to create a competitive edge and distinguishable products. It is also a very powerful marketing strategy which can be used to announce to new market segments and increase customer loyalty, which can also be called as brand loyalty in this case.This study focuses on the concept of branding, as applied by tour operators, and how it affects tourists? choice of tour operator. The concept is explained by data gathered from the related literatureA field study was carried out in Sarigerme village. Tourists who are on holiday in Sarıgerme were surveyed in order to collect the necessary empirical data required by the field study.