A research indended for the integration of Batman local cuisine to gastronomy tourism

Both helping tourism activities to arise and being one of the main factors, individuals' feelings of curiosity and exploration enables them to familiarize with new places, cultures and destinations. These demands of people have led to the birth of cultural tourism in the tourism sector. As a result of this situation, protecting cultural, historical, geographical, religious values and passing them on to the next generations for their sustainability are essential. One of these cultural values is the local cuisine of the regions. Local cuisines reflect the cultural, social, historical, geographical and religious values of a region and have an important role in transferring these values. The goal of this study is to identify the dishes of Batman local cuisine and to research the sustainability of Batman local cuisine through local food businesses. Another purpose of the study is to protect the local cultures and to transfer this cultural knowledge to the future for their sustainability. Qualitative research method was preferred as a research design and a face-to-face interview was conducted using a semi-structured interview form as a data collection technique. The research region is Batman Province. While determining the random sample, maximum variation and purposeful sampling methods are used. The data collection process and the findings section of the study were handled in two stages. In the first phase, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 58 participants residing in Batman province and its districts in order to determine local dishes of Batman local cuisine. In the second phase, face-to-face interviews were made with 15 food business managers and their masters in Batman city center who produce local food in order to determine the sustainability of local cuisine through local food businesses. The gained findings were processed with the descriptive analysis method and turned into data. As a result, 85 local dishes of Batman province were identified. The following results have been determined thanks to this research such as the identity of the local cuisine is not developed, local food is not used so much in food firms, the managers and masters do not have sufficient knowledge about the local cuisine, and no public or private organization has previously studied on this issue. Due to the lack of research on Batman cuisine culture, it has been determined that there is no written source or finding.