Abstract
Evaluation of the Gastronomy Tourism Potential of Van Province
Developments in the economic level of people and their having free time affect the motivation of them to take a vacation. This situation enables to increase of the tourism potential. This increasing potential of tourism has been seen among the important sources of income for destinations. Tourism which has showed progress over time, has revealed different types of tourism. Gastronomy tourism is one of these types. Gastronomy tourism is related to local products, food and beverage and culinary cultures of regions or destinations. For this reason, if it is asked to examine the local rich culinary culture of a region or destination, it should be evaluated within the scope of gastronomic tourism. Local culinary culture also enables destinations to compete in order to become gastronomy cities and create brand values. The province of Van which has hosted many different cultures and civilizations, has a rich culinary culture. In this regard this research; aims to evaluate the gastronomic tourism potential of the Province Van, to determine the place of gastronomy tourism in the existing tourism potential and to offer suggestions to the stakeholders. In accordance with this purpose, semi-structured interview technique which is one of the qualitative methods, has been used. By creating a semi-structured interview form consisting of 12 questions, face to face interviews have been carried out with 18 tourism stakeholders. According to the data obtained, it has been seen that the rich culinary culture of the province Van is sufficient for the formation of gastronomy tourism, but its current gastronomy tourism potential is not at the desired level and there are some deficiencies, and suggestions have been made in this regard. Besides, it has been determined that Van's gastronomic tourism is not in the main role among the existing tourism types, rather in the supporting role of other tourism types.
Keywords
Gastronomy, Gastronomy Tourism, Local Foods, Van.
