A research towards determining the viewpoints of local tourists to Gaziantep cuisine

Previously; while sea, sun and sand trilogy would come to mind when mentioned about tourism activity, now within the alternative tourism frame, sport, adventure, religious, health, culture and congress tourism spring to mind. Another important tourism type which can be assessed within alternative tourism at nowadays' destinations is Gastronomy tourism. Gastronomy Tourism is a substantial and conspicuous tourism type among other alternative tourism types of today and accordingly, its share on tourism has been increasing by degrees recently. In this regard, among the main touristic values of Gaziantep city comes its "Cuisine", in other words, foods and beverages. The aim of this research is to determine the view points and thoughts of local tourists visiting Gaziantep on the Gaziantep cuisine. The survey form developed in the line with the mentioned purpose was conducted on 384 people who visited Gaziantep in June 2015 with convenience sampling method, which is one of the non-random sampling methods. At the end of the research, it has been determined that the local tourists who visited Gaziantep has found the dishes of Gaziantep as rich in calories, having a rich variety of foods and delicious. It's been determined that the tourists' viewpoints towards Gaziantep cuisine have been composed of the three dimensions of "Gaziantep Cuisine, Gaziantep Cuisine Culture and Local Cuisine and it has been another finding put forth in this research that the perception level of the local tourists who visited Gaziantep has been quite high. Key words: Destination, Gastronomy, Local tourist, Gaziantep cuisine.