Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turkish Studies (Elektronik), cilt.14, sa.4, ss.2547-2577, 2019 (Hakemli Dergi)
Economic and socio-cultural effects created by internationalstudents' mobility have reached a level that shouldn't be ignored. Thereis a growing global competition between countries to gain higher share ofinternational student market. The Republic of Turkey is one of the mainactors of this market. One of the factors influencing internationalstudents' country preferences is a country image. In this context, thisstudy aims to reveal the image of Turkey as an international educationdestination in terms of Kyrgyz students and to evaluate the effect ofcountry image on destination choice. For this purpose, first of all,indicators related to the global movement of students, leading countriesfor international students and the position of Turkey are discussed onthe basis of secondary data. Then, the primary data obtained fromundergraduate students (n=1000) studying at four big universities inBishkek (capital city of Kyrgyzstan) through questionnaire method areevaluated. The research findings showed that overall Kyrgyz students'have positive perceptions toward the image of Turkey, moreover theresults revealed three different market segments (low, medium and high)in terms of perceived country image. Country image dimensions such thequality of education and life, symphaty and interest have positive effects on destination choice. On the other hand, historical and socio-culturalcharacteristics and human characteristics negatively affect the countrypreferences. The findings of this study are thought to provide importantclues both for Republic of Turkey and Kyrgyz Republic. Consequently,international student mobility is of great importance not only for hostingcountries, but also in terms of source countries.