Gastronomy tourism in Turkey cheese: Cheese Festival Istanbul

The purpose of this thesis is; to determine the motivation of visitors to the festival to participate in the Istanbul Cheese Festival. In addition, determining whether there are differences between the demographic variables of the participants and their motivation to participate in the festival is another purpose of the study. Within the scope of the thesis, the questionnaire technique and document analysis, which is a data collection tool, was conducted between 18-22 April 2019 for the participants in the Istanbul cheese festival.450 questionnaires were distributed, considering that there may be invalid ones from the prepared questionnaires. A total of 384 questionnaires that can be used in distributed questionnaires were analyzed. In the thesis study, easy sampling method was used. Descriptive statistics such as arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used in the analysis of the data. In addition, factor analysis, t-test and ANOVA analyzes were also used. As a result of the factor analysis conducted in the research, 4 factors were obtained. Factors obtained; "Comfort and innovation" is "socialization", "relaxation" and "experience". As a result; The findings obtained in the study provide the festival managers in the gastronomy and tourism market with important information in terms of marketing activities for the organized festivals and will help them develop strategies.