How Do the Non-Visitors Evaluate the Van Destination?

This studyinvestigates the reasons why non-visitors do not travel to Van, examines theirtourist behaviour tendencies, and evaluates their perceptions of thedestination. Data were collected from 426 individuals using conveniencesampling via online and face-to-face surveys and analysed using SPSS 22.0.Descriptive statistics and parametric tests were used for the analyses. Thefindings reveal that when Van is mentioned, the first elements that come tomind for non-visitors are Lake Van, the Van breakfast, and the Van cat.However, participants reported insufficient information about the destination,perceived transportation to Van as inadequate, and did not find the cityattractive. Moreover, Van was not considered a destination that would bringsocial prestige, and safety concerns, along with negative information fromtheir social environment, contributed to a generally unfavourable destination view.As a result, participants expressed hesitation and anxiety about visiting Vanin the future. Significant gender differences were also observed in touristbehaviour tendencies, with women exhibiting more positive holiday-relatedtendencies than men. In addition, individuals with postgraduate education heldmore favourable perceptions of Van than those with associate’s or bachelor’sdegrees. Based on these findings, the study offers recommendations fordestination managers, tourism practitioners, and future researchers to improveVan’s destination image and attractiveness. Key Words: Van,Non-visitors, Tourism behaviour tendencies, Destination perception.