The story of food in Hatay cuisine, UNESCO creative city of gastronomy: A review from the gastro tourists' perspective

Gastro tourists' objectives include food tasting and the desire to get to know the culinary culture of the region. With the increasing interest in gastronomy tourism, it is possible to say that it provides communication between people and has become an important factor in the transfer of cultural elements. Traditional foods and beverages have gone through phases in the historical process and traditional products can have stories. The aim of this research is to examine the products with a story in Hatay cuisine culture in terms of gastro tourists. . The research population is gastro tourists visiting UNESCO gastronomy cities. Gastro tourists visiting Hatay were determined as the sample. A participant was reached with the snowball sampling method, and then the question "Are there any gastro tourists or gastro tourists that you can direct us about this subject?" was asked and other participants were reached in line with the participant's guidance. In this context, it was planned to examine the food and beverages with a story in Hatay culinary culture in terms of gastro tourists through semi-structured interviews with 25 gastro tourists. Qualitative research method was used in the research and data were obtained through interviews. In the first part of the research, information about Hatay culinary culture and culinary culture products was given. In the second part of the study, gastro tourists and gastro tourist types, travel motivations and food and beverage stories in Turkey were mentioned. The third part of the study includes findings and interpretations. When the characteristics of the participants are analyzed; it is seen that they are mostly male between the ages of 19-55. In line with the data obtained from interviews with gastro tourists visiting Hatay, it has been observed that the awareness of food and beverage stories is limited and only 7 gastro tourists have knowledge about food stories, except for a few food stories, which are not known and affect the approach of gastro tourists to the product.