FACTORS AFFECTING THE PREFERABILITY OF THERMAL HOTEL ENTERPRISES: A RESEARCH IN THE PROVINCE KUTAHYA

Thermal tourism is an increasingly important type of tourism around the world and the expectations of the customers are increasing accordingly to this. Customers try to improve their health as well as experiencing holiday experiences. They are involved in a variety of cultural and social activities in the destination where they take thermal tourism services. In this study, the expectations of the tourists traveling within the scope of thermal tourism were examined. Data were collected by survey method from 397 customers stayed in three thermal hotels in Kütahya between 1-31 January 2018. The results reveal the fact that the factors affecting the thermal hotel prefences of the tourists are the surrounding naturel elements, the health programmes implemented by the facility, the adequacy of the personnel, the services being entirely on rest and recovery and the presence of supportive activities According to another result, it was found that the perception of service evaluation of females is higher than males