The Effect of Local Food on Tourism: Gaziantep Case

Abstract

Experiencing local food in a certain destination becomes one of the most important tourism activities for tourists. Local foods; which play an important role in destination choice, revisit intention and marketing are useful tools for destination development. In 2015 Gaziantep was entitled to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in Gastronomy branch. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate the domestic tourist perception of Gaziantep local food and the effect of this perception on revisit intention. As a result of the survey conducted with 394 domestic tourists have visited Gaziantep, it had been shown that the local food perception can be grouped under five dimensions as cultural experience, restaurant service, food taste, health and hygiene, variety and table manner. It had been also found that the dimensions of cultural experience, variety and table manner, food taste have a positive effect on the revisit intention. However, it was also determined that Gaziantep's membership of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in gastronomy branch is not known enough. In destination marketing, local dishes can be stressed more strongly and thus more tourists can be attracted. Therefore, tour companies can give more space to promote Gaziantep's regional culinary richness in their promotional brochures, websites and social media.