DETERMINING THE IMPORTANCE LEVELS OF FACTORS AFFECTING PEOPLE’S CHOICE OF REST AREA BY ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS

Abstract

Throughout history, humankind has been constantly traveling for various reasons. Highway transportation is often preferred for these trips. However, traveling by highway is a tiring and time-consuming form of transportation and it is relatively more difficult and complicated compared to other transportation alternatives (seaway and airline transportations). Because people who travel should rest at regular intervals to meet their physical or physiological needs. Rest areas are critical places to meet such needs while traveling. However, people encounter many different resting places along the travel itinerary. The fact that there are many places that can be used to meet their needs, confronts consumers with the decision problem. In this study, it was aimed to determine the factors affecting the preferences of consumers among the many resting places encountered and the importance levels of these factors on the resting place preference. The data were evaluated by using the widely used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method of decision theory and it was determined that the most important factor affecting consumer choice was the “services” provided at the resting area.