A qualitative research in Alanya on the emergence, management and strategies of gastronomy festivals

In this study, it is aimed to discuss the emergence of a gastronomy festival, its management and the strategic approaches followed in such festivals in the example of Alanya destination. Qualitative method was preferred in the research and focus group interview, individual interview and document review were used together as data collection tool. Focus group meeting (8 participants) was organized in the first stage for the preparation of the semi-structured interview form. Then, using the purposeful and snowball sampling method together, a total of 12 people interested in event tourism in Alanya were contacted and individual interviews were held. The findings obtained from the interviews were subjected to content analysis. The findings of analysis were gathered under four main themes: the role of festivals in tourism, the purposes of organizing the festivals, the process of gastronomy festivals and the strategy of gastronomy festivals. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that festivals have three roles in tourism, which are encouraging, supportive and complementary. In addition, the findings show that while festivals can be organized for various reasons such as psycho-social, cultural, political, economic and tourism, many other components such as product, festival naming, location and venue selection are important in the emergence and management of a gastronomic festival. Finally, the findings suggest that strategic plans and emerging strategies can be found in gastronomic festivals, while strategic approaches based on resources within the framework of the festival theme are the type of strategy followed in such events.