The present research is based on data collected from Japanese tourists visiting Turkey.

Through open-ended questions, a list of main reasons why tourists were satisfied or dissatisfied with their visit to Turkey was obtained and analyzed using content analysis. The results point to the importance of the tourist-host community interaction and the perceptions of tourists in relation to the host community, and the need for further research to test empirically the effect of these on the tourist’s satisfaction with the visit.

Managerial implications related to the competitive positioning of Turkey are derived from this conclusion and from the analysis of other factors affecting Japanese tourists’ satisfaction with their visit to Turkey.