Role of tour guides on tourist satisfaction level in guided tours and impact on tourist re-visiting intentıon: a research in Istanbul

The increase of leisure time and economic welfare level led people to travel and thus participate in tourism activities worldwide. As a result of the increase of the international tourism activities in recent years, the amount of tourism receipts that countries acquire increased significantly and tourism destinations found themselves in a harsh competitive atmosphere. In tourism industry in which customers’ wishes, needs and expectations change every day, countries in macro-level and tourism enterprises in micro-level, which want to obtain share from international tourism pie and maintain their current market share are supposed to offer qualified service and renew themselves constantly. In this context, tour guides who are regarded as one of the representatives of countries and tourism destinations and one of the most important front-line staff in tourism industry play significant role on tourist satisfaction and re-visit intention. Tour guides who provide idea and information to tourists about community and country via their attitudes, behaviors, skills and knowledge level and represent themselves, their colleagues, travel agencies/tour operators, their countries and countries’ people to tourists are accepted as the staff group having most significant responsibility. No matter how many guide books and how much information that tourists making a visit to any country have, they need tour guides as they do not know the language, culture and traditions of the country. Irrespective of the volume of information tourists might have when visiting a country, the need for a tour guide plays a crucial role on interpreting the authenticity, language, culture and traditions of the country. Thus making the tourists’ experience an unforgettable one. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact the tour guide service in Istanbul has on tourist satisfaction level and what extent this attracts repetitive visits to the city. This research is made up of three chapters. In the first chapter, the concepts of tour guiding profession and tour guide are examined in a detailed way and the characteristics that tour guides should have are investigated by analyzing the concept of tour guides. In the second chapter, the concepts of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and loyalty in tourism industry and re-visit intention are examined by making a detailed literature search.
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In the last chapter, the impact the tour guide service in Istanbul has on tourist satisfaction level and what extent this attracts repetitive visits to the city is determined on the framework of theoretical knowledge. In this context, the questionnaire technique was applied and the obtained quantitative primary data were analyzed statistically. Following the findings of the research, the results were evaluated and recommendations were developed.