Analysis of the Perception of Tourism and Hotel Management Associate Degree Students about the Concept of “Vacation” with the Metaphors

Abstract

The aim of the study is to reveal the perceptions of the students who receive associate degree in Tourism and Hotel Management about the concept of "vacation". Metaphor analysis was used in the study and each student was allowed to produce more than one metaphor for the "vacation concept”. The data were obtained from 140 students who studying in the Tourism and Hotel Management Department at Balıkesir University Balıkesir Vocational School and Sındırgı Vocational School in the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. In the study, one of the qualitative research methods, phenomenology design was used. The findings are presented with percentage and frequency values. According to the findings of the research, undergraduate students produced 180 metaphors for the concept of "vacation". However, 10 metaphors, whose meaningless, were excluded from the study, and the analyses were carried out on 170 metaphors. These metaphors are grouped under 11 different conceptual categories. In the study, it was concluded that the most "rest" metaphor was produced for the concept of "vacation".