Kıbrıs Halkının Yenilebilir Böceklere Bakış Açısının Ölçülmesi

Tourism has great economical value for countries such as the Cyprus. Its contributions to the annual gross domestic product share and its impact on the balance of external debts require that all actions that could be taken in order to develop the tourism sector should be carried out strategically such that we can minimize the possible food-borne problems and turn to different food sources that minimize production costs and time. Increase in the investments in the tourism sector will lead to a decrease in agricultural lands available and that would lead to an increase in the costs of meat production and the difficulty of reaching the food source due to the agricultural lands now used for tourism. Factors such as the low production costs of edible insects, their high protein ratios; creates the opinion that edible insects is an option to solve the possible food unavailability problems. This study aims to determine the perception of the Cypriot society on edible insects. A quantitative research method were used as the research methods for the study. In order to accomplish this goal, data from 450 participants living in Cyprus were collected via a survey and were analyzed using the SPSS-22 program. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the perception of edible insects in Cypriot society differ according to demographic factors. The results obtained from Northern Cyprus and Southern Cyprus were analyzed by group tests for clarifying the detected values. As a result of this analysis, it is concluded that the South Cyprus society members’ perceptions are mostly positive towards edible insects in comparison with the society members who live in Northern Cyprus. Keywords: Cyprus, Gastronomy, Gastronomic Tourism, Edible İnsects