Turkish visitors to Italy: notes on the cultural package tourist

This research analyzes characteristics and economic aspects of culture-oriented package tourism focusing on Turkish visitors traveling to Italy. Data references the package tour arrangements covering 2,278 visitors traveling in 82 package groups. This information was gathered via random sampling in 2003. Although the number of travelers in each group ranged from 8 to 54, the average group size was 27.78. Seven- and four-night packages were the standard packages having 57.95% and 31.96% shares, respectively, followed by three-night packages at 4.08%. Results show that the mean total cost of holiday per person was �260.00 (US$308.20) and mean total cost per person per night was �45.37 (US$53.78). Study results also indicate that if the number of nights stayed increased, the mean cost of package per person per night decreased. The overall findings contribute toward a better understanding of the Turkish package tourism characteristics and show that package tourism generates economies of scale that keep the prices relatively low and allow more people�especially from developing countries, in this case being Turkey�to be involved in international tourism. Finally, the paper suggests future research.