TIMES FACTORS AFFECTING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TOURISTS

Abstract

Tourism includes the relations between people from different cultures and this also allows cross-cultural interaction and contact. Intercultural interaction also includes the interactions between tourists from different cultures and nations. In the tourism industry, the interaction between tourists constitutes another dimension of social interaction. Cross-cultural interaction generally includes interactions between people who have cultural characteristics different from each other regarding perception, expectations, values, worldview, rules of behaviour and form of communication, and come from different two cultures. This can lead to positive and negative interactions between tourists. From this perspective, other tourists can have positive and negative effects on a tourist's experience. However, in the literature, the studies on other tourists and interactions between tourists have been very limitedly. Therefore, this study aims to reveal factors affecting tourist-to-tourist (t2t) interactions. In the study, it was carried out semistructured interviews with thirty-three international tourists visiting Istanbul. It was used the triangulation technique to provide the reliability and validity of the study. Accordingly, focus group interviews were held with 7 tourist guides. As a result of the research, it was found that some cultural, personal and situational factors affect the interactions between tourists.