Geographical indication product experience: The example of Aydın province

The aim of this study is to measure the geographical sign and geomarked product information levels of local tourist and tourist guides, their geotagged product experience, and their attitude towards purchasing geo-marked products. To this end, the views of indigenous tourists and tourist guides were examined for the geotagged products of Aydin province, 7 of which were marked with origin and 15 marked with vent.In this mixed-type study, the views of domestic tourists and tourist guides regarding the geographically labelled products (7 with origin and 15 with geographical indication) in Aydın province were examined. Quantitative and qualitative findings were evaluated together in the study, which was carried out with the mixed method and adopted a convergent parallel design. Two sample groups were formed in the study. While the first sample group consisted of 474 domestic tourists, 260 women and 214 men, the second sample group consisted of five domestic tourist guides, two women and three men. During the data collection process, a Likert type graded scale was applied to domestic tourists, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with tourist guides. Normality assumption was tested on the scale data, internal consistency values were examined and non-parametric tests were carried out. Descriptive analysis and content analysis methods were used in the analysis of qualitative data. The results show that tourist guides and local tourists are knowledgeable about geographically indicated products, and figs, chestnuts, olives, olive oil and pita dishes stand out the most among the geographically indicated products of Aydın. Tourist guides suggested that advertising and marketing activities should be given importance in order to increase the awareness of the geographically indicated products of Aydın, and the promotion activities should be enriched with the cooperation of local governments and public institutions.