The Impacts of Perceived Crowding, and Atmospherics on Visitor Satisfaction at Cultural Heritage Sites: A Comparison of Turkish and British Visitors to Topkapi Palace, Istanbul

Abstract

Cultural heritage sites impress the visitors by their ‘worth-to-see’ architectural characteristics and historical or cultural importance. Visitor experiences at cultural areas are also influenced by site atmospherics, and crowd, that form visitors’ overall satisfaction with the site. This study aims to examine the relationships amongst visitors’ crowding, and atmospherics perceptions, and overall satisfactions in a cultural tourism area. With this purpose, a survey was conducted at one of the most popular heritage sites of Turkey; Topkapi Palace, Istanbul. Data collected from 261 Turkish and 236 British visitors, who have seen the interior and exterior parts of the Palace. By factor analysis, atmospherics is found to have two dimensions, namely; service and spatial. Analyses results exhibit that both atmospherics dimensions positively affect visitor satisfaction, although perceived crowding has a negative impact or both nationalities. Findings of this study indicate that cultural heritage sites are the areas where domestic and foreign visitors may have similar kinds of perceptions and evaluations.