Abstract
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: ACTIVE TOURIST GUIDES' METAPHORICAL PERCEPTION TOWARDS DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN TOURISTS
The aim of this study is to examine the metaphorical perceptions of the active tourist guides, who are among the important tourism actors, towards domestic and foreign tourists, and to determine whether their approaches differ to the nationality. The study was conducted between January 2019 and December 2019. The study was carried out in the sample group of 45 volunteer active tourist guides. The sample group was determined through snowball sampling, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. In this study used phenomenological design and the data obtained through the semi-structured questionnaire was analyzed by the content analysis technique. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that the active tourist guides produced 33 valid metaphors regarding the domestic tourists and 35 metaphors related to the foreign tourists. The metaphors developed by the participants for domestic tourists are evaluated under 4 categories, and the metaphors related to the foreign tourists are evaluated under 6 categories. Accordingly, it has been revealed that active tourist guides perceive domestic tourists as mostly dissatisfied, difficult customers and their culture of travel as developing. It was also determined that the participants perceive foreign tourists as more curious and conscious tourists. On the other hand, it has been determined that the approaches of the active tourist guides for tourists of different nationalities differ significantly, they have a smiling, positive, informative, approach towards domestic tourist, and also informative, fair, entertaining and distant approach is exhibited by the participants in the context of foreign tourists.
Keywords
Tourist guide, domestic tourist, foreign tourist, metaphor
