Yabancı Turistlerin Satın Alma Karar Sürecinde Kültürel Varlıkların Etkisi: Konya Örneği

Her sektörde olduğu gibi turizm sektöründe de son yıllarda yaşanan ekonomik ve teknolojik gelişmelerin etkisiyle tüketim algısında ve davranışlarda değişiklikler ortaya çıkmıştır. Sürdürülebilirturizm anlayışının gelişmesi, kaynakların hızla azalmasıve niteliklerinin bozulmasısonucu çevresel değerlere olan sorumluluk bilincinin artması, klasik tatil anlayışının yerini alternatif turizm türlerinin almasıgibi nedenler insanların farklıarayışlar içine girmesine neden olmuştur. Farklıkültürleri tanıma ve yeni yerler keşfetme amacıyla seyahat eden turistlerin bu hareketleri kültür turizmini ve kültürel varlıkları, seyahat kararlarında etkili olan iki önemli değişken haline getirmiştir. Bu çalışmada, Konya’yıkültürel amaçlarla ziyaret eden yabancıturistlerin satın alma karar sürecinde kültürel varlıkların etkisine ilişkin görüşlerinin belirlenmesi ve değerlendirilmesi temel amaçtır. Bu doğrultuda Konya’yıziyaret eden yabancıturistler araştırmanın evrenini oluşturmaktadır. Anket yöntemiyle toplanan verilerin analizinde faktör analizi, frekans-yüzde dağılımları, aritmetik ortalama ve standart sapma değerleri kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada toplanan verilerin analiz edilmesiyle elde edilen bulgulara göre, turistlerin satın alma karar sürecinde kültürel varlıkların etkisine ilişkin görüşleri olumludur. Bununla birlikte, turistlerin satın alma karar sürecinin ihtiyacın ortaya çıkmasıve alım sonrasıdavranışlar aşamalarınıdaha fazla önemsedikleri ifade edilebilir.

In today’s rapidly changing and globalizing world, the consumption phenomenon becomes more widespread and intense day by day. Old values, lifestyles, desires and exceptions are rapidly replaced by new tendencies and ideas. Now, individuals act in order to obtain products unique to them instead of using products that are used by everybody; therefore approaches addressed towards individual needs become more prevalent than approaches addressed towards social needs. On one hand, an individual who wants to satisfy his/her needs through the purchase decision he/she makes, also shapes the making of a series of economic decisions concerning which consumption elements shall be used in which levels, combination ratios of consumption factors and in which frequency and in line with which requirements the products and services shall be offered. Economical and technological developments experienced in the increasing global competition environment have caused changes in the consumption perception and acts related to the tourism sector, just as it is the case with every sector. The development of sustainable tourism mentality, the increase in the sense of responsibility towards environmental values due to the fast reduction and degradation of sources, and the classic vacation mentality being replaced by alternative types of tourism have caused people to plunge into different quests. These acts of tourists who travel in order to get acquainted with new cultures and discover new places have rendered cultural tourism and cultural assets two important variables which influence travel decisions. People have travelled to historically interesting areas since centuries, but cultural and heritage tourism has only been shown as a certain tourism market since the last two decades. Cultural tourism, which satisfies the demands of the developing and segmented tourism market and which enables the creation of differentiated tourism products, is defined as overall activities of tourists travelling with the purpose of acquiring information on values pertaining to historical cultures, arising from their usage of products and services having cultural appeal, during these travels of theirs. Cultural tourism, which becomes more important day by day by courtesy of the tourists’ interests towards cultural values and cultural heritage became a type of alternative tourism which is realized due to the travelling of people for desires such as communing with the nature, seeing still uncovered tourism areas and getting acquainted with different cultures. Especially in recent years, the number of tourists travelling on cultural purpose has increased, and continues to increase more and more. According to World Tourism Organization data, cultural tourism is among the tourism types displaying most development and the continuity of this development is envisaged. Cultural tourism not only is beneficial for the tourism regions, but also for the inhabitants of the region and for the tourists visiting the region. Among these benefits is the responsibility undertaken by the cultural tourism in the protection of the regions’ natural, historical and cultural values and in the passage of these values to future generations. Individuals, who recognize the importance of the tourism values which they share with the visiting tourists, indirectly serve to the cultural tourism through protecting their own cultures and cultural values. As for another benefit of cultural tourism, it is the information and knowledge it provides to the domestic and foreign tourists concerning the values of the region. Furthermore, cultural tourism is also important since it ensures stronger societies in terms of unity and reputation and helps the society in reaching higher quality living standards. The tourists’ desire to get acquainted with the cultural heritage and assets belonging to different culture causes the development of cultural tourism. Their tendencies to physical cultural elements such as historical places, archaeological sites, historical museums, churches, architectural structures and historical monuments orient the purchase decision making of tourists. The concept of cultural asset, which is essential for the tourism sector and which is a part of cultural tourism should not only be seen as natural and historical places, man-made buildings, cultural traditions and similar elements passed from generation to generation, but also as promoted tourism products. Konya province too, which has been home to many civilizations during its history, comes to prominence through its natural beauties, historical and urban richness and its historical and cultural assets such as mosques, türbe tombs , churches, historical and archeological remains, urban and natural sites, höyük tells , külliye complex of buildings adjacent to a mosque , palaces, han inn , etc. Its alternative tourism potential renders Konya province an important destination tourists desire to see when choosing their tour schedule. The principal cause in selecting the Konya province in the research is as follows: This province which was home to many civilizations during its history and which embodies different historical and cultural assets, previously never was subject to such a study. Also, when statistics of visitors arriving to and accommodating at Konya are taken into consideration, it may be observed that the province isn’t able to adequately use its tourism potential. Due to this reason, effort was spent in the research to reveal Konya province’s touristic potential. The main purpose of this study is to determine and evaluate the opinions of foreign tourists visiting Konya on the influence of cultural assets to their purchase decision making process. Determining the opinions of tourists on the influence of cultural assets to each stage of their purchase decision making process is among the sub-purposes of the study. Within this scope, the data for the research which has a descriptive attribution has been collected through survey which is a quantitative method. The survey implementation was conducted through 391 foreign tourists, which is above the threshold limit value of the sample determined in the research, which was n=384. Data obtained in the research was analyzed in the SPSS 15.0 software by the confirming factor analysis method through using the frequency-percentage distribution, arithmetical average and standard deviation values. The study is particularly important since it, concerning tourists’ decision on their travels, and taking into consideration the stages of purchase decision making process, determines the influence of cultural assets in each one of these stages and gives clue in the stages for which tourists expressed relatively more positive opinions. Besides, revealing the opinions of tourists having different cultures, and therefore different cultural characteristics and environments, on cultural assets’ influence to travel decision, is also important since it sheds light to the importance of cultural assets in the tourism sector in which travel tendencies change rapidly. As per the results reached through analyzing the data obtained in the research, opinions of tourists on the influence of cultural assets to their purchase decision making process are positive. Nevertheless, it is observed that the tourists express relatively more positive opinions concerning the problem recognition and post-purchase behaviour stages of the purchase decision making process. It is an important clue in the necessity to pay more attention to these two stages of the purchase decision making process. The most important restriction encountered during the research process was the non-existence of a previous research which directly examines the influence of cultural assets to the purchase decision making process of tourists. This restriction may perhaps be evaluated as an opportunity to contribute to the literature. Another restriction was the difficulty of reaching the tourists due to limited time of the tourists who acts as a group and in conformity with the tour schedule, and the inability to reach the members of every nation visiting Konya