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Travelers’ narratives disseminated online about destination experiences are an important source of information for measuring the performance of tourist destinations and understanding travelers’ perceptions, behaviors and expectations. Drawing on data from travel narratives, the purpose of this study is to examine the destination image of Istanbul as revealed in Western travel blogs. In addition, this study aims to identify the demographic characteristics of travelers who are more likely to engage in destination blogging activities.

A deductive content analysis approach was used on a sample of travel blog entries retrieved from TravelPod.com. Based on the dimensions and attributes of destination image identified by Beerli and Martín (2004), a coding scheme was established to guide the coding process.

The findings suggest that the online destination image of Istanbul is generally positive. Specifically, the destination is mainly appreciated for its cultural and historical heritage, as well as for its tourist infrastructure. However, the findings also highlight some issues that concern Western travelers, such as safety and traffic congestion.

This study is timely as it explores the online destination image of a key destination in a period of instability. The findings are expected to offer insights for destination management organizations in Turkey on how Western travelers view Istanbul as a tourist destination. These insights are also important to help policymakers and tourism destination marketers design effective strategies.

In resolving the social and economic problems within the global dimension, countries try to realize social policies according to ILO norms, because nowadays many factors influence the future of the labour movement. Turkey became a member of ILO in 1932 and approved 40 conventions of this organization. Despite the approved conventions, the Turkish social security system has still some problems. Besides that, the tourism sector plays a very important economic role for the Turkish economy. In this research, we tried to carry out the application of ILO norms in the Turkish tourism sector, because the norms are important steps to be realized in the course of E. U. membership for Turkey. This work was supported by the Research Fund of the Istanbul University. Project Number: 1605/30042001.