TOURISTS’ PERCEPTION ON THE IMAGE OF KANJIZA AS A TOURIST DESTINATION PREDSTAVA TURISTA O KANJIŽI KAO TURISTIČKOJ DESTINACIJI

The tourism of Kanjiza is commonly based on its health and spa offer, while sport, recreation and events may be added as supplementary. Considering that in the year of 2005 tourism became one of the priorities in the Development Strategy of Kanjiza Municipality, a more intense promotion of its tourist potentials has been conducted on the tourism market. The objective of this paper is to perceive, using the method of opinion poll, the effects of promotional activities on tourists, in order to realize what kind of image among its visitors Kanjiza has as a tourist destination. To begin a research of this kind, first of all, the term of the image of tourist destination is needs to be perceived, along with the theoretical and methodological framework of the usage of the opinion poll, as a specific instrument of the market research. It is also important to define the advantages and disadvantages of the different type of questions, which are usually a part of the opinion poll. The research of this kind belongs to the field of marketing research and it is important from the angle of reviewing the previous results and making conclusions in order to improve marketing activities to reach a better position on the market of tourism and keep it. The structure of the respondents varies by gender and age group, while domestic tourists dominate among them. The major findings of the research are related to the data analysis obtained from the respondents, are the basic view of the image of Kanjiza as a tourist destination, and recommendation were given about further marketing activities. The seeking answers are about the questions of ideas associatiated with Kanjiza, sources of information, purposes of visiting, rating of the elements of the promotional activities which have impact on the quality of the whole tourist destination, the accuracy and truthfulness of promotional activities and suggestions for the improvement of the promotional activities. The “Spa of Kanjiza” is most frequently associated with Kanjiza and the most common purpose of visiting this town, although other amenities are also related to Kanjiza as a tourist destination. One of the results of this research which indicates that informing about Kanjiza via the Internet is significant, emphasizes that the subjects of the local tourism industry (the Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation “Banja Kanjiza”, private hotels and private accommodation owners, the local tourist organization, even the local government) need to approach the development of the so-called e-marketing seriously, which includes advertising, interaction with potential tourists and distribution of the products via the Internet. The quality of the tourist products and the whole tourist destination is one of the conditions of the long-term success on the tourism market, where instead of low prices, value for money has become the main request of the subjects of the travel demand. The image of the tourist destination is being formed not only during the stay, but also upon the information obtained in the tourists` hometown and the memories about the destination after their holiday. Particular elements of the promotion could be directly related to the quality of the tourist destination and rated, using scales, by which the visitors can express their satisfaction with them. Some of the important characteristics are the accuracy and truthfulness of the data used for promotion, as well. This research revealed positive results related to this matter. One of the most important advantages of the open-ended questions in opinion polls is that they do not suggest any answers to respondents; therefore the researchers could reveal unexpected details about their opinion and points of view. The respondents could give their recommendation about the useful characteristics of the tourism offer in Kanjiza, which could be used in the promotional activities: the politeness and the professionalism of the staff, the cleanliness and the arrangement of the environment, Hungarian folklore and cuisine, famous persons, etc... These suggestions are important in case that these characteristics used for promotion, which are interesting to the guests in Kanjiza, might attract potential tourists with the same or similar preferences.


INTRODUCTION
The development of tourism in Kanjiza began in 1913, when the first facilities were built in order to exploit the hot mineral water for bathing. Nowadays, the guests are mainly patients on rehabilitation, although the Spa offers some wellness and relaxation programs.
Beside that, the municipality of Kanjiza has a great number of natural and cultural attractions, as well as sport and recreational facilities: the Tisa River, multiculturalism, cultural and sport events. Its location on the Hungarian border increases its chances for    of open-ended questions is that they don`t suggest the answers to the respondents and allow researchers to find out something unanticipated, but they on the other hand, suffer a lower response rate than closed-ended questions (Ruane M. J, 1998).

STRUCTURE OF THE RESPONDENTS
Just over half of the respondents belong to the age groups between 16 to 25 and 46 to 65 with 2% more male respondents than female. Also, the number of those who belong to the age group between 26 and 35 should not be neglected (20.25%). These facts indicate a balanced structure of the respondents. can be as good promotion as a satisfied tourist.
Repeated visits of those who have visited before can also be caused by different type of events, such as international or domestic sporting events, festivals and exhibitions. Not only does event encourage people to visit but media provides an opportunity to promote the tourist destination.

MAJOR FINDING OF THE SURVEY
The The respondents rated these elements of promotional activities with grades from 1 -"very unsatisfied" to 5 -"very satisfied with this element of promotional activity". The average rating is shown in the Table 1.
The elements of the promotional activities Average rating Information about the destination before the arrival of the tourist 3,66 Information obtained during the stay in the tourist destination 3,61 Tourist signs 4,33 Souvenirs 3,16 Accuracy and truthfulness of promotional activities. This qualitative evaluation element of the promotional activities of Kanjiza as a tourist destination was graded by the following question: Does your experience of staying in Kanjiža match your expectations of this town? Over half of the respondents answered that their experience is better than their expectation. Very few of respondents stated that their experience was worse and that they are not satisfied with their stay in Kanjiza at all -4% (Graphic 4). These results indicate that the promotional activities present the potential visitors of Kanjiza accurately and truthfully the tourist offer.

Graphic 4: The Image That the Respondents Gained After Their Stay in Kanjiza
The Respondent`s suggestions. In an open-ended question the respondents could write their own ideas to describe the tourist offer in Kanjiza in a way that could be used for promotion. The most frequent answers were: comfort of the accommodation; politeness, professionalism and well organization of the stuff in the rehabilitation centre; efficiency of the rehabilitation programs in Kanjiza (recovery guaranteed 100%); low prices for foreign tourists and beautiful nature. They also mentioned some segments of the offer that they found interesting for promotion: sport events, Hungarian folklore and cousine, the workshops of Jozef Nagy, recreation facilities. They also found the vicinity of other tourist attractions, such as the Palic Lake, interesting enough to be used in developing the image of Kanjiza as a tourist destination.

CONCLUSION
Since the beginning of the 20. century, Kanjiza began to develop an image of a rehabilitation and spa centre which eventually led to the growth in tourist arrivals. This research shows that the original image of Kanjiza has not changed ever since the beginning of tourism development in the early 20. century.
The influence of friends and relatives recommendation is still the most important factor leading to the increase of the number of the tourists. However, the fact that the percentage of those who gain information through the Internet for the purpose of visiting Kanjiza gradually grows, cannot be ignored. This leeds to the conclusion that the tourism industry in a whole (the Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation "Banja Kanjiza", the Tourist Organization of Kanjiza Municipality, private hotels etc.) needs to improve the quality of their internet presentations and to make the purchase of their products and services more available to potential visitors via Internet.
Although the main purpose of visiting Kanjiza is health improvement, the research implies that there are also other purposes which are the result of expanding the tourist offer, such as sport, recreation and events.
The average rating of the elements of promotional activities which have impact on the quality of the tourist destination is mid-ranged, so they should be further improved. That includes information amount and flow between the tourism industry and potential tourists and visitors, as well as the accessibility of souvenirs.
Almost two thirds of the visitors has better image of Kanjiza after their stay and more than a third of them gained experience that mathes their expectations. This leads to a conclusion that the quality of tourism products and services is gradually increasing. Also, the research led to respondents` suggestions about the segments of the tourst offer which could be used in order to attract more visitors.