Gastronomy city stakeholder's perspectives to wine tourism – Case of Hatay

Tourism has become an increasingly important sector in the globalizing world today. Tourist product diversification started to become effective over time. In this case, countries are trying to make this an advantage. In this context, gastronomy tourism also faces an increasing interest in recent years. Wine tourism is also considered within gastronomy tourism and wine tourism is seen as an important tourism product for countries due to the audience it adresses. This study aims to reveal the perspectives of gastronomy city stakeholders towards wine tourism. Throughout history, Hatay has been a remarkable city in terms of culture, belief and gastronomy. It has a rich culture in terms of gastronomy wine production is also carried out in Hatay, which was selected as a gastronomy city within the scope of UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2017. While there is only one vineyard for wine in Hatay, home-made wines are produced. For these reasons Hatay province was chosen as the research region. In this sense, the stakeholders in Hatay were interviewed using the interview technique. Stakeholders interviewed; Travel Agencies, Public Officials, Hotels, Tourist Guides, Producers and Civil Society Organization. The interviewers were conducted face to face with 26 participants. In the study, descriptive analysis technique and content analysis technique were used among the qualitative analysis methods. Stakeholders were asked 4 questions in common. 9 questions were asked according to the quality of the stakeholders. Content analysis technique was applied to 4 common questions asked to the participants. Descriptive analysis technique was preferred to the other 9 questions. As a result of the research, it was revealed that there is a lack of publicity, infrastructure and marketing activities for wine tourism. One of the results of the study is stated that wine can be marketed together with the cuisine of Hatay rich in gastronomy.