Analyzing the Perceptions of Local People Living in Siirt Towards “Tourism” Concept with the Help of Metaphors

Abstract

The aim of this research is to identify the perceptions of local people living in Siirt on “tourism concept” by way of metaphors and review them by content analysis. The local people living in the aforesaid district were given the expression “Tourism is like........; because.......” and asked to fill in the empty place after tourism with a metaphor and write down their reason to prefer that metaphor. In the research, phenomenology design was used which is one of the qualitative research methods. 162 people were reached during data collection process. But the forms which were left blank or the produced metaphor and its reason were identified to have incompatible relation were not included in assessment. Therefore, 150 forms were taken into the scope of assessment. According to research findings, the concept of "tourism" is discussed in 6 groups. These metaphors are grouped under the headings of "economic perception", "historical and cultural perception", "emotional perception", "classical perception", "animate and concrete perception of existence" and "inanimate and abstract entity perception".