Development of a vegan-friendly destination - The case of Didim

Veganism has been gaining increasing attention recently, and therefore vegan travel and tourism are also on the rise. Despite this trend, the existing literature generally does not focus on tourism destination development that takes into consideration the needs of vegan tourists. Hence, this study investigates the development of Didim as a vegan-friendly destination under two research questions: (1) what are the aspects of a vegan-friendly destination, and (2) how is a vegan-friendly destination developed. This study mainly contributes to the destination development literature, but it also provides supportive contributions to the field of event management and food-based tourism. To achieve these, both online and on-site interviews are conducted with tourism professionals and local business owners, volunteers, members of non governmental associations, as well as residents from the Didim area. As part of this qualitative study, snowball and judgmental sampling methods were adopted to reach the most representative group of individuals with the purpose of coming up with useful and scientifically meaningful answers to the research questions. The findings point out the aspects of a vegan-friendly destination, which include adherence to the vegan philosophy, the cuisine, addressing the needs of vegan visitors, abolishing, or reducing animal exploitations, social aspects and a favourable attitude of the local people. The development of a vegan-friendly destination in Didim is found to centre on the organization of educational activities and research, on the declaration of vegan-friendliness and on the introduction of vegan-friendly events, including festivals and vegan markets. The process on which this initiative is based, and the role of the various stakeholders is also discussed.