Postmodern Tourism in a Mythological Destination: Exploring the Image of Olympos/Turkey
Chapter from the book:
Bayram,
A.
T.
(ed.)
2023.
Researches on Tourism.
Synopsis
The preliminary study aims to understand the image of Olympos, a destination located in Antalya-Turkey, known to be a heaven for hippies and backpackers, with the potential of postmodern tourism. A long-term data is preferred to understand the changing image of the destination in time. Considering all Olympos accommodation enterprises registered for Tripadvisor, which is 63, 3795 tourist comments were posted between 2010 and 2020. Amongst these enterprises, 11 of them are selected as the sample due to being on Tripadvisor for more than 10 years with 1989 comments in total. Based on the content analysis, the perceived image of Olympos is identified as being different, comfortable, unobtrusive, environmental, non-luxury, communal, history-oriented, offering many activities etc. Whereas Olympos Spirit is claimed to be altered by some, the others claim that it has been the same for years. The findings both extend the literature on postmodern tourist behaviors, suggest practical managerial implications for the nature-focused destination authorities, and enlighten the research field for this mythological destination for scholars and practitioners.