The KTLN Kalkan Survey 2010 provides a fascinating insight into what 388 visitors and residents think about Kalkan. 

But how should we interpret the data, and how representative are these views?  And in any case, do these views actually matter?

Here, we introduce the findings of the 2010 survey.

Do your views matter?
Taking the last question first - yes, we think they do matter.  And importantly, so does the Belediye.  Moreover, so do local business people we have spoken to.

Yes, we are guests in a foreign country, but collectively, we do make a significant contribution to the economy of Kalkan, and it is hardly surprising therefore, that locals would be interested to know what we think.

We discussed our plans for the survey with the Belediye, and were encouraged by their willingness to look at the results.  KTLN is pleased to be able to provide this direct mechanism for feedback.

Are these views representative of all visitors to Kalkan?
Truly, there is no way of telling.  The survey was open to all.  Some 388 people chose to express their views, which is quite a large sample size, and way ahead of what we expected.  

If you look at the size of the household/group represented by each respondent, you could say that these views represent over 1,200 visitors to Kalkan.

What we can say with some certainty is that the people who chose to take part should have a good knowledge of Kalkan.  The vast majority of respondents have:

• been to Kalkan recently,
• stayed here for several weeks minimum (in any given year), and
• been coming for years

So it's fair to say that our respondents know what they are talking about.  It is also reasonable to assume, that given our guarantee of anonymity, the views expressed are genuine and not 'sugar coated'.

Admittedly, if there are any people out there who came to Kalkan and hated it, they are unlikely to be visiting the Kalkan Turkish Local News website.  So perhaps we should accept there will be a marginal element of rose tinted specs going on here.

And it goes without saying, that as this is an English language website, we have not attracted that many non-British respondents.  So we can't say that our findings reflect, for example, any Russian visitors, although interestingly, we do have one in our sample.  (You are welcome - Добро пожаловать).

How should we interpret the data?
We did our best to phrase the questions in an unbiased way.  With the benefit of hindsight (and your feedback), we realise that we made a few schoolboy errors.  For example, some questions didn't give you a 'Not Applicable' option, in which case many of you have opted for a 'Neutral' answer.

Nevertheless, we believe the data is quite robust, and provides a reliable snapshot of what foreign visitors and residents are thinking.

The survey provides us with four main areas of information, which we will bring to you over the coming days.  

1. Visitor demographics - a profile of foreigners in Kalkan (published today)
2. Coming to Kalkan - how you get here and where you stay (published on Tuesday 23rd February 2010)
3. Property ownership (published on Thursday 25th February 2010)
4. What you think about Kalkan (published on Saturday 27th February 2010)

In addition to the bare statistics, we can do some cross-tab analysis to make the results more meaningful - for example, when asking for opinions on estate agents, we can focus on those who have bought a property, and those who are seriously in the market.

We can also add some flavour to the bare numbers, by telling you what the key messages were in the optional comments that some people left.

When all the main findings have been published, on Saturday 27th February, everyone who took part in the survey will receive an email from us, with a PDF attachment, providing all of the summary data.

We start publication of the results today, with visitor demographics.  Please click on the following link:

1. Visitor demographics - a profile of foreigners in Kalkan