The destination branding in tourism and the case of Antalya

The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the level of Turkish tourisms industry in the process of being a brand. For this purpose, Antalya where is one of the most important areas of Turkish tourism has choosen as application area and made survey with 520 tourists to determine Antalya’s level of being a brand. The main reason of this study, the added value of tourism industry is going to increase with the process of being a brand. Therefore, the contribution of tourism industry’s to national economy is going to increase. For this purpose, first, tourism concept has explained and tourism datas have explained within World and Turkish values. Second, brand concept and necessities of being a brand have explained by methods which had explained in first and second chapter. In last chapter, Turkish tourisms level of being a brand has examined by the study of Antalya case. In conclusion, %98,5 of people who visited Antalya think that Antalya is not a brand. %93.7 of them think that Antalya has substructural problems. %67.5 of them think that Antalya has superstructural problems. %81.9 of them think that they will choose Paris, Venice etc, if there would be an equality at prices. The results of the study showed that Antalya has a very low brand value. Therefore, studies related to being a brand in tourism should focus at invisible values more than visible values. Finally, by being a strong brand in tourism will increase tourism incomes and will contribute country’s economy positively.