Does Tourism Change Tourist Attitudes (Prejudice and Stereotype) towards Local People?

The main goal of this study is to determine whether attitudes (prejudices and stereotypes) of domestic tourists towards South Easterners change after their travel experiences. Additionally, whether the levels of contact with the local people have any effects on changes of attitude was determined to be sub-goals of this study. Within the context of these goals, the attitudes of domestic tourists who have visited the provinces of Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa, which are located in the Southeast Anatolia Region of Turkey, were studied using the post-vacation survey (n;386) technique. Additionally, data was gathered during the course of study from people who have never visited the Southeast to create a comparison group (n; 252). For the purposes of this study, factors analysis, frequency, ANOVA and t-test analyses were applied to the gathered data. As a result of these analyses, significant changes were determined in the attitudes (prejudices, positive attitudes) of people who have undergone experiences of travel. However, it was also revealed that there are no statistically significant differences that are dependent on factors of contact variables, namely the type of travel, the number of overnights stays, and the number of arrivals at the destination.