BAŞER, Furkan Gazi Üniversitesi - Ticaret ve Turizm Eğitim Fakültesi, Turkey , BAŞÇI, Ayhan Hitit Üniversitesi - Meslek Yüksekokulu, Turkey

THE IMPORTANCE OF ST. PAUL’S HOUSE WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE RELIGIOUS TOURISM AND EVALUATION OF THE VISITORS’ VIEWS RELATED TO THE PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES

39987

Anatolia contains many of the churches, monuments and settlements which are regarded as sacred space for people from different religious groups. The St. Paul’s House, visited as a center of pilgrimage by Christians since 2008, has a great potential in the international movement of religious tourism. In this paper, foreign visitors views of St. Paul’s House related to the qualification of the promotional activities are investigated. For this purpose, a survey is performed in accordance with the method of simple random sampling with 385 individuals among foreign visitors who visited St. Paul’s House. The collected data is analyzed by using descriptive statistics and various statistical analyses (Chi-Square Test of Independence, One-Way ANOVA, Tukey HSD Test). As a result of the statistical findings from the survey, tourists think that the activities of public relations, used in the promotion of this tendency, are more successful. Besides, it is concluded that this place should not be considered as a religious tourism center because Christians frequently visit this place with one-day tours.

423

Tourism Promotion , Religious Tourism , Saint Paul , Tarsus

Mustafa Kemal University Journal Of Graduate School Of Social Sciences

443