Gastronomy Tourism as an Alternative Tourism: An Assessment on the Gastronomy Tourism Potential of Turkey

Abstract

Gastronomy tourism, besides being the most important means of economic development, it is also the most significant part of the fastly developing cultural tourism market. Many recent researches emphasized that the culinary culture of a target destination has a significant part in the travel experience. Travelling for the purpose of experiencing the new and unbelievable food, wine and other inimitable local gastronomy assets of another region is gastronomy tourism. In Turkey, tourism policies had been limited to the coastal mass tourism in the coastal zones of Aegean and Mediterranean regions, utilizing sea, sand and sun potentials of the country, win the purpose of maximum contribution to the national economy, by attracting foreign tourists. Turkish Cuisine; in seven region with advantage of having different climates and vegetation, reserves diversity of local taste and flavour in its cuisine as well Turkish cuisine one of three top cuisine in the world. The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of marketing strategy of the traditional Turkish cultural cuisine as a alternative tourism field. Turkish articles with the subject of "gastronomy" published in "Google Scholar" and Council of Higher Education Thesis Centre or foreign articles regarding the gastronomy potential of Turkey and master's and PhD thesis on the subject have been analysed within this research. A content analysis has been conducted as a result of the revision of the data gathered from 54 articles and 32 thesis within the scope of defined categories. Also method of frequency analysis has been utilised during the analysis of the data. According to the findings, gastronomy tourism has an important potential as a kind of alternative tourism for the Turkish tourism sector.

The awareness and authenticity of gastronomic tourism in Ilocos Region

“…This implies that gastronomy tourists travelling to Ilocos Region share the importance of Ilocanos authentic local cuisine to other tourists through word of mouth. This is very much reflected on the paper of Sahin (2015) stating that gastronomy tourism is a type of tourism that appeals to high income and intellectual tourists, aged between 35 and 55, who want to visit destinations of different food cultures, who are open to new experiences such as food, to share their experiences with others and spend much. In the marketing of destinations, the gastronomy tourism creates important power with its potential for year-round performance, increases in spending and staying time over other types of tourism, contributes to local development, environmentally sensitive development, authentic and inimitable product range exclusively in this region.…”

New Developments in Promoting Tourism in Uzbekistan

“…Turkish cuisine is regarded as one of the oldest and best cuisines (Akgöl, 2012). This is because of the geographic location of Turkey and its historical foundations that has strongly contributed to form a Turkish cuisine culture, which has created a great diversity in its cuisine (Sahin, 2015).…”

“…It has become famous for its dishes such as kebabs. Recent studies have shown that the taste and diversity of Turkish cuisine is a major factor in attracting foreign tourists who regard Turkish cuisine as rich, attractive and delicious (Sahin, 2015). Turkish cuisine is regarded as one of the oldest and best cuisines (Akgöl, 2012).…”

Gastonomy Tourism as an Emerging Niche Market in Uzbekistan

“…This is resulting in an increasing number of tourist destinations becoming very sought after because of their unique culinary and gastronomy (Hjalager, 2002). For example, Sahin (2015) discussed the growth in gastronomy tourism as an alternative tourism field in Turkey. He stated that gastronomy tourism helps support the development of rural areas that consists of seven regions that have different climates and vegetation.…”