TRAVEL AGENCIES’ CONTRIBUTION TO GASTRONOMY TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN IZMIR AND AN EXAMPLE GASTRONOMY TOUR PROGRAM BASED ON EXPERT OPINIONS

Abstract

Gastronomy tourism embraces a wide range of gastronomic opportunities for tourists while contributing to sustainability, rural development and the protection of culinary heritage. It diversifies and revitalizes tourism as an essential element and emerging segment of the tourism industry. However, there is a scarcity of research on the subject in the context of travel agencies. The purpose of this research is to determine whether travel agencies in İzmir use culinary elements and gastronomic sources as themes in their tour packages to highlight the gastronomy tourism potential of the city, along with how a better development can be achieved. Thus, the contribution of this study is threefold. First, travel agencies in downtown İzmir were surveyed in terms of their actual gastronomy tourism product offers and future plans to create one. The survey results revealed that gastronomy was not promoted as a principal theme due to a lack of awareness of potential local and regional culinary sources. Second, experts in the gastronomy and tourism industries were contacted using purposive sampling. Their opinions were collected to create a list of places, products and activities that could be included in a gastronomy tour package. Third, an example tour program was created based on expert opinions along with the author’s contribution.