Analysis of the Reasons for Travelers' Intentions and Reluctance to Revisit Kish Island

Extended Abstract

Introduction

For many countries, tourism is an important source of business activity, income, employment, and international exchange. Many developed countries receive a large annual income from this tourism industry, so other countries are interested in expanding this industry so that the government can make a profit. Still, a country needs to develop the right infrastructure to meet the needs of tourists and provide them with the right facilities. This can be relatively profitable for the industry. In the current era, due to the spread of social networks, tourists can easily transfer their positive and negative experiences to other tourists through electronic word of mouth. Customers tend to search for more information before making any decision. The best way to do this is to search for reviews and opinions published by other consumers online. This process is known as electronic word of mouth.



Methodology

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical, and in terms of research strategy, it is a mixed sequential and exploratory type and in the form of a cross-sectional study. The research data is related to the opinions expressed online by travelers to Kish Island on the hellokish.com site in the period from the first of March 2023 to the end of October 2024, which was extracted and collected through the Instant Data Scraper plugin. In order to achieve the study's objectives and address its questions, two sequential qualitative and quantitative steps were employed. In the qualitative step, the philosophy of interpretivism and the inductive approach were used in terms of applied research strategy, qualitative strategy, content analysis method, and cross-sectional studies. The research data were collected from the aforementioned site, implemented in MAXQDA20 software, analyzed, and categorized. The Crisp data mining process and Rapid miner data mining software were used in the quantitative step. The research population includes travelers who expressed their opinions about their travel experience to this island on the hellokish.com website. Due to the use of all data extracted from user comments during the aforementioned period, sampling was unnecessary, and all relevant data was included in the analyses.



Results and discussion

According to the data extracted from the opinions of travelers on the hellokish.com website and the analyses conducted in the qualitative and quantitative sections, the results indicate significant differences in the travelers' experience and the factors that cause their desire or reluctance to return to Kish Island. What distinguishes the present study and its results from previous studies is that the categories and subcategories extracted from the opinions of travelers who have turned away and are eager to return to Kish Island, as well as the dependency rules (if-then) extracted from a multitude of travelers' opinions on social networks, were selected and, due to the anonymity of the individuals in presenting their opinions and their presentation without bias and bias and the absence of an interviewer or other external factor, their authenticity can be largely assured. On the other hand, the present study focused on processing and discovering rules and patterns from seemingly abundant and less-considered data in previous studies that, despite being important, had not been considered. The results showed that the most important reasons for not returning to Kish Island are the poor quality of hotels, high costs and the lack of proportion between prices and services and quality, poor health and safety conditions, and dissatisfaction with the quality of entertainment and recreation. On the other hand, travelers willing to revisit Kish Island attribute their positive experience mainly to the quality and appropriate access to amenities and recreational facilities, the professional and friendly attitude of hotel staff, and the pleasant and peaceful environment of the island.



Conclusion

The analysis of the research results indicates that Kish Island is capable of creating a peaceful and enjoyable experience for tourists, especially if high-quality and reasonably priced services are maintained at a high level. Travelers who are eager to return have mentioned the high quality of hotels, cleanliness of rooms, varied breakfast, and easy access to shopping centers and recreational activities. Also, the island's peaceful atmosphere and beautiful coastal nature are other attractions of this destination that encourage many travelers to return. Improving the quality of hotels and amenities is of great importance. Renovating hotels, especially worn-out hotels with inadequate facilities, and improving the level of cleanliness and service standards can have a positive impact on the traveler experience. Furthermore, special attention should be paid to improving the health and safety conditions of hotels and other recreational places so travelers can use these facilities more confidently. In addition, controlling prices and their proportion to the quality of services should be prioritized. Proper policies regarding the pricing of services, especially food, transportation, and entertainment, can increase traveler satisfaction and reduce dissatisfaction. It is suggested that prices be adjusted to match the quality of services and that discounts and special packages be considered to attract more tourists.