A Research to Determine German Tourist Perception

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the perspectives of tourism employees towards German tourists through metaphor. In line with the purpose of the study, answers were sought to the questions of “Which metaphors have tourism employees used for the concept of tourist?” and “When the common features of the metaphors used are examined, under which conceptual categories are they grouped?” The data in the study were obtained through an interview form consisting of two parts. The first part of the interview form consists of questions regarding the demographic data of the participants. In the second part, the participants were asked to fill in the blanks in the statement “German tourists are like…………; because ……………”. The study was conducted with tourism employees in 4- and 5-star hotels in Çanakkale. The data were obtained between May 15 and June 30 via face-to-face interviews and e-mail. While analyzing the data, forms that stated meaningless metaphors and those where the reason was not stated were eliminated and the analyses were conducted on 135 forms. Reliability was calculated as 90% within the scope of this study. As a result of the study, a total of 95 different metaphors were obtained and the analyses were carried out on these metaphors. The obtained metaphors were grouped under eight categories as “Relational Element”, “Existence Element”, “Economic Element”, “Gastronomic Element”, “Given Importance Element”, “Development Tool Element”, “Danger Element” and “Animal Element”. The relational element category is the category with the most developed metaphors.