As a desti̇nati̇on element, effects of local gastronomy on the brand ci̇ty marketi̇ng: Gazi̇antep case

The competitive environment brought by changing conditions of life, forces products and services to differentiate in a way which ends with branding as the result. This is also true for the cities. Candidate cities for branding try to use their own valuable resources for marketing purposes. Gastronomic tourism is one of today's emerging tourism trends and it is the one that is effectively used by many cities for economic prosperity. In this study, Gaziantep city as Turkey's richest province of cuisine, has been selected as an example. It is the first city that has been started city branding project in Turkey. In terms of gastronomic tourism, Gaziantep's position and its future potential has been evaluated. It's been also investigated for its gastronomic contribution to city branding. Research was carried out through qualitative research techniques: observations and interviews. The collected data were evaluated and interpreted in terms of Gaziantep's city branding, city marketing and gastronomic tourism. This study showed that Gaziantep city was unable to adequately assess its gastronomic richness. It's been seen that there was no active campaign for the marketing of city brands and gastronomic assets. All branding and marketing activities among the institutions and the sector has been found to be unrelated. Keywords: Brand city, City Marketing, Gastronomic tourism, Gaziantep, Destination Marketing.