Evaluation of local people's perceptions, satisfaction, and support for tourism regarding the Şanlıurfa culture route festival

This study aims to determine the participants' perceptions, satisfaction, and support for tourism regarding the Şanlıurfa Culture Route Festival. The participants' perceptions of the festival's social, individual, economic, and touristic benefits significantly influence their satisfaction levels. Among these, perceived economic and personal benefits impact festival satisfaction the most. Furthermore, participants' satisfaction with the festival substantially affects their support for tourism development. Accordingly, the positive perception of the benefits associated with the festival influences satisfaction levels, and high satisfaction levels directly impact tourism development support in the destination. Analysing the averages of the responses given by participants to the scales, it is found that the festival helps alleviate daily stress, contributes to the promotion of the region, provides social interaction opportunities for local people, increases the business volume of local enterprises and that the events organised during the festival are sufficient. Additionally, it has been observed that participants intend to attend the Culture Route Festival again and strongly support tourism development.