The impact of gastronomy tourism on destination image and destination choice: The case of Çeşme

It is possible to claim that Turkish Cuisine is one of the most important cuisine in the world. The reasons for that are; because of our country's climate the rich resources and agricultural opportunities and flora, the amount of food and beverage is abundant and the types of food are very varied and delicious. However, Turkish nation and Turkish Cuisine is affected by Western and other countries and losing its strength nowadays. And also, The more women joining to professional life, industrialization and urbanization, tourism, the new trends in food business and fast food habits are the main reasons for such process. But still maintains its importance and still Turkish Cuisine is one of the major cuisine with French and Chinese cuisine in the world. But, there are things to do in marketing and promoting fields in order to push Turkish Cuisine and for competing with the other world cuisines. Beriefly, Turkish cuisine's promotion and marketing should be given more importance. The concepts of creating a positive destination image and destination selection have a very important place in tourism marketing. For this reason, in recent years, it is important to increase the product diversity in destination marketing and to offer quality and unique products to the market. In this context, the cultural heritage of a destination distinguishes itself among its competitors. Gastronomy is also an important element of cultural heritage. At the same time, gastronomic tourism can be effective both in the creation of the destination image and in the process of destination selection. However, if destinations enhance the characteristics and local values of its own, it will increase their competitiveness in tourism. Izmir has a great potential in gastronomy tourism. In order to be a center of attraction in the near future and to become famous world-wide, without losing of time, Turkish cuisine must be presented as a tourism product in foreign markets, Turkish cuisine need presentation and to be removed to the fore. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to determine the destination preferences of foreign tourists visiting Çeşme, and to measure the image perception of Çeşme, and also to determine the role and importance of Gastronomy Tourism in these processes. However, also this study was carried out in order to obtain information about the opinions of foreign tourists about Turkish Cuisine and to determine what needs to be done for the development of gastronomic tourism in Çeşme. In this context, with the survey conducted in Çeşme district, the perception of the image of the foreign tourists, the factors that they give importance in choosing the destination and the gastronomic image perceptions were tested. Analyzes were performed on 401 data sets obtained by questionnaire technique. Firstly, descriptive and comparative statistical analyzes were conducted on the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and the hypotheses were tested by examining the relationships between the variables. Then, a model was developed within the framework of the related literature. Factor and regression analyzes were performed to test the hypotheses about this model. According to the findings, it can be said that foreign tourists' Çeşme image perception is positive and its climate, beautiful scenery and natural charms and attractive local cuisine are seen as the most powerful features. Regarding destination selection preferences, the most important elements of the participants were; climate, security, food, friendship, and cleanliness. According to the results, gastronomy ranks third. As for gastronomic image perceptions, the participants; Foods that provide cultural experience, Turkey is a rich cuisine and stated that they found it quite tasty. According to the regression analysis, gastronomic image affects destination image perceptions and destination selection preferences. Finally, in line with the findings, suggestions for the relevant literature and sector were presented. Keywords: Gastronomy Tourism, Destination Image, Destination Choice, Turkish Cuisine