Travel Agencies and Gastronomy Tourism: Case of Iata Member A-Class Travel Agencies

Abstract

This research was made in order to show to what extend IATA Member A-Class Travel Agencies, which operate in Istanbul, how benefit from the gastronomy tourism. Parallel to this aim data was collected via content analysis method from the 244 websites of the IATA member travel agencies, which are registered to TÜRSAB and operate in Istanbul, between November and December 2017. Maxqda program was used during the analysis process. In the wake of the data analysis it was detected that travel agencies do not directly organize gastronomy tours and they organize the travels related to the gastronomy tourism under culture tours. Moreover within the organized tours' content it was observed that the most distinguished gastronomic services are 'tasting' and the most distinguished products are respectively "wine", "çibörek", "Turkish delight", "lokum" and "meatball/köfte".