Gastronomic identity as a strategic resource for tourism: An investigation within the framework of resource-based view

The global competition which is increasingly becoming stronger each passing day, also exist in tourism industry. In the environment of increasing competition, destination managers try to save or increase their existent market share. These circumstances not only canalize destination managers to focus on alternative tourism types which eliminate especially seasonal limitations but also force them to put forward non-substitutable, rare and valuable resources which differentiate destination. Accordingly, studies towards "gastronomy" and therefore, "gastronomy tourism" which partake within "culture" as the most essential attribute that differentiates destination, constitute a significant resource for sustainability and competitiveness. This study has concentrated upon whether or not gastronomy can be described as a strategic resource within the context of destination management, through the exploration of effects of gastronomy on destination competitiveness within the framework of Resource-Based View (RBV) of Barney (1991). Thereby the role of gastronomy in competitiveness has been endeavoured to be measured. Due to the fact that there was no RBV scale in gastronomy literature which enables to scale the perception of destination managers' about gastronomic identity, five scales have been developed for this purpose. Four stages have been pursued in developing the scales; firstly, literature review was conducted by the researcher on strategic management and gastronomy and a propositions pool has been established. Afterwards, a group of academicians, who are field experts on the subject matter, have investigated the proposition pool and specified the potential propositions that could be utilised for the scale. Scales, comprised of the specified potential propositions, were presented to academicians, experts in the field of tourism and management-organization, and appropriated for the pilot study. The pilot study, on the other hand, was conducted with the attendance of 48 senior and middle level hotel, restaurant and travel agency managers employed in Istanbul. In the light of the result of the pilot study several propositions were eliminated from the scale and the questionnaire took its final form. This questionnaire, then, was distributed to 211 senior and middle level hotel, restaurant and travel agency managers employed in Istanbul. Upon assessment of the factor analysis, conducted by means of the data collected from the participants, the construct validity of "valuable", "rare", "non-substitutable", "inimitable" and "competitiveness" scales was revealed. The correlation analysis was benefited from measurement of existence, orientation and severity of the relation amongst variables within the research model and significant relations have been observed amongst the variables. As a result of the regression analysis, the positive impact of the valuable and non-substitutable variables on the destination competitiveness of gastronomy has been detected. Keywords: Gastronomy, Gastronomic Identity, Resource-Based View, Strategic Management