Complaints regarding the performance of tour guides: A study on package tour consumers

The aim of the study is to determine the package tour consumer complaints about the performance of the tourist guides and to increase the awareness of the tourist guides in terms of performance. Other purposes of the study are to determine the relationship between tourist guide performance and general consumer satisfaction and to examine consumers' attitudes towards their dissatisfaction with tourist guide performance. Within the scope of the research purpose, firstly the literature was scanned and then the primary data collection stage was started by means of a questionnaire. The population of the research consists of domestic consumers who have previously participated in a package tour in Turkey and have complaints about the performance of the tour guide. The research sample was targeted as 384 domestic package tour consumers, but 460 people were reached. The questionnaires were applied to the consumers in the spring and summer months as the number of package tour consumers increased and it was easier to reach the consumers. Therefore, the survey application, which started in March 2022, was terminated in October 2022. Printed questionnaires were applied to package tour consumers in İzmir and Muğla provinces after the tour by the researcher. The links of the online survey forms were delivered to the consumers through tour guides. Before filling out the questionnaires delivered to the consumers, the consumers were informed about the purpose of the questionnaire and the study. A total of 460 package tour consumers were reached with online and printed questionnaires, but 393 questionnaires were taken into consideration. It has been determined that five complaints of domestic package tour consumers about the performance of the tour guide are the tour guide is not being polite, the tour guide is not being respectful, the tour guide is not informing about reliable shopping stores, the tour guide is not fulfilling the promises in the tour program and the tour guide not being punctual. The results of the research also show that the satisfaction of the consumers for the tour in general is high and the tour guide has a great effect on the satisfaction level of the tour in general. It is seen that the majority of the participants think that the dissatisfaction they experience due to the tour guide is insignificant. In addition, consumers do not engage in any complaint behavior because they think that complaining is useless. It has been determined that those who make complaints are younger consumers. The study consists of five parts. The first part includes the subject, purpose, importance, assumptions, limitations and definitions of the research. The second part of the research is the conceptual framework. In the third part, there is the method of the research, which includes the data collection tools and methods of the research, the universe and the sample. In the fourth part, the findings and comments of the research are given. The fifth part of the research consists of results and recommendations.