Winter Sports Tourism - A Study on the Perceptions and Assessments of Skiers about the Winter Sport Centers (A Survey on Palandöken Ski Center)

Sport and tourism make up of two important fields and sectors feeding and improving each other mutually, like the two sides of a medal. ski resorts worldwide are challenged to find new markets, requiring a deeper understanding of skier behaviour. the study was carried out to reveal the boundaries and development potentials of tourism based on winter sports in palandöken. it was mainly tried to indicate the components that would lead the winter tourism centers to succeed and to evaluate the current perceptions that will provide the perfect athmosphere and meet the demands and needs of the visitors coming to the region for the purpose of making winter sports. the assessments given by the tourists to the winter tourism centers and palandöken destination components were comparatively analyzed in the study by taking the data of a group of visitors who came to palandöken ski center between december 2011 and march 2012. the results of the survey will shed light to the related future studies on a theoretical sense.