Recreation Demands of Customers in Thermal Tourism Establishments: Case of Balikesir Province

Evaluate recreation demand of customers who lodge in thermal hotels at Balıkesir province. Thermal tourism addresses to people who want to be healthier or aim to have sustainable health level. Parallel to the alternative tourism trend, in recent years there is an increase in number of tourists who visits to thermal facilities for daily trip or for a longer time period. In this study it is aimed to evaluate planning and developing spare time activities for customers who lodge in thermal facilities. The population of this research consist thermal hotel customers at Balikesir region from September to December in 2013. Sample includes 400 customers who stay Asya Pamukcu Hotel Balikesir. In this research, “Customers? Recreational Demand Determination Survey” is applied which consists of questions related to spare time activities and questioner is developed by considering expert opinion and test re-test technique. The obtained data from survey is analyzed by SPSS 17 software. According to results, it is shown that, customers activities are insufficient related to spare times. Another result obtained from this research is that customers are willing to have recreational components in thermal facilities. Furthermore, it is shown that customers need information about thermal practices