DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Regional Development and Tourism 2022, 14(2):127-151 | DOI: 10.32725/det.2022.017

Memorable Tourism Experience in Slow Cities: A Netnographic Analysis in the Case of Halfeti

Samet Çevik, Semih Sariipek

a Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University, Erdek Vocational School, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management

The study aims to explore the components of foreign tourists’ memorable tourism experience about Halfeti which is one of the slow tourism destinations of Turkey. The study seeks to answer the questions of “In what expressions do tourists describe their Halfeti experiences?”, “What are the factors that tourists focus on in their description of Halfeti experiences?” and “How does the title of slow city affect tourists’ Halfeti experiences?”. The study is qualitative and netnography design was used in the research. To access the experiences of foreign tourists visiting Halfeti, the Tripadvisor platform was chosen. The data used in this study include 42 online narratives and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The factors that shape Halfeti experiences of foreign tourists were determined as “admiration”, “activities”, “nature”, “history”, “local culture”, “restaurants” and “location”. This study provides practical and future recommendations concerning the importance of the awareness of the title of slow city. The results show that the slow city title of Halfeti is not a determinant on MTE. Although some components that guide tourists' MTEs are a result of the initiatives initiated by the title of slow city, there is no indication that they had an MTE due to the destination being a slow city. This shows that while the district continues its activities related to the slow city, it also needs to increase the awareness of this title.

Keywords: Memorable tourism experience, slow tourism, slow city, netnography, Halfeti

Received: March 12, 2022; Revised: November 26, 2022; Accepted: December 29, 2022; Published: December 29, 2022  Show citation