Investigating visitor experiences of Ayder Plateau, a natural world heritage site

Year 2025, Volume: 10 Issue: 3, 369 - 378

Berna Mazlum

https://doi.org/10.31822/jomat.2025-10-3-369

Abstract

With technological developments, the ability of visitors to easily share their experiences and easy access to these opinions affect the decisions of potential tourists. Learning positive and negative experiences can be very effective especially in planning and marketing processes. In this study, visitor experiences of Ayder Plateau, one of the touristic attractions of Rize province, were analyzed through the comments made on the TripAdvisor website, and the data obtained were evaluated by content analysis. As a result of the research in which 849 comments about Ayder Plateau, a natural world heritage, were analyzed; it was determined that although the scores given by the visitors about the destination were high (64%), negative opinions and complaints about the destination (52.91%) were higher than positive opinions (47.09%). In the research, 23 positive and 34 negative codes were identified. In addition, adjectives related to the “beauty of the destination” (excellent, magnificent, terrific, incredible, wonderful, etc.) constituted the most frequently repeated code in the positive direction, while the code “destruction of the natural beauty of the destination” was repeated the most in the negative direction. Based on the most recurrent negative opinions and complaints about Ayder Plateau, various suggestions were made.

Keywords

sustainability , natural areas , visitor experience , TripAdvisor , ayder

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