MEASUREMENT OF THE DESTINATION EVALUATION SUPPORTING FACTORS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON BEHAVIORAL INTENTION OF VISITORS: ANTALYA REGION OF TURKEY

In this study, the authors tried to identify the basic destination attributes that affect visiting tourists most, by ignoring their pre-visit expectations and using a performance-only approach. Considering one year's tourism data of the Antalya region, five different structured questionnaires (in English, German, Russian, Dutch, and French) were given to a sample of visiting tourists. In all, 4,493 out of 13,461 questionnaires were returned, representing a 33.37% rate of return. According to the results of exploratory factor analysis, five factors (health and hygiene, shopping, information, local transportation, and accommodation) contributed to the differentation of the destination attributes. In addition to these, in order to understand the interrelationships between destinations evaluation supporting factors and behavioral intentions of the visitors, structural equation modeling technique was used by the authors.