Athens Journal of Tourism - Volume 2, Issue 2 – Pages 117-126

Prospects for the Turkish Gastronomy Tourism

By Mehmet Sarıoğlan

Gastronomy has not only been gaining more and more attention lately but it also has
evolved to being an integral part of the every-day life in modern societies. The reason
for this lies in the fact that it fulfills not only physical but also cultural, social and
psychological needs. In this context, exquisite performance in the field of gastronomy
attracts worldwide interest and admiration, with gastronomy tourism naturally
emerging as a new and quite popular concept; the one of the pursuit of unique and
memorable eating and drinking experiences. The aim of this study being the analysis
of the specific characteristics and determinants of the modern, tourism industry
developing around gastronomy, it is based on the examination of existing market
structures as well as future developments. For this purpose, the research method
selected is the analysis of a case study on both the empirical and the theoretical level.
The example of Turkey, where gastronomy tourism with its special characteristics has
been flourishing lately serves as a suitable base for suggesting a strategic plan for
improving the industry by exploiting the dynamics of its huge potential.

Introduction

Tourism industry, demonstrating notably rapid growth, has a significant

share of the global gross product today. In this context, the proportion of
expendable individual and household income allocated to tourism products and
services has also been rising, as the rapid improvements in communication
technology stimulate people's tendency towards visiting places they have never
seen before and gaining new cultural experiences (Dasgupta 2011, Franklin
2003). According to the estimations of the Global Tourism Organization, the
value of the tourism product will reach 1.6 billion while tourism income will
exceed the threshold of two trillion by 2020. The overall socioeconomic
contribution of the industry to national economies is considered to be valuable
as it boosts employment, national income and balance of payments at the same
time when it causes the external-internal debt to decrease, serving the ultimate
goal of overall welfare increase (Bulut 2000, Çoban and Özcan 2013).
Consequently, the majority of the countries, the developing ones in particular,
struggle for getting the largest possible "slice" of this cake according to their
supply potential (Hepaktan and Çınar 2010, Bahar 2006).
Another reason for which tourism is regarded as a socially beneficial
sector of economic activity is that it helps in preserving world peace not only
thanks to its positive impact on foreign exchange flow and employment but
also because it provides the basis for cultural and social communication on the
international level. When the specific case of Turkey is considered, being one
of the cornerstones of its economy, tourism industry attracts the state's


Assistant Professor, Balıkesir University, Turkey.

https://doi.org/10.30958/ajt.2-2-4 doi=10.30958/ajt.2-2-4
 Vol. 2, No. 2 Sarıoğlan: Prospects for the Turkish Gastronomy Tourism

attention in its attempt to come up with an effective remedy for foreign trade
deficit, inflation and unemployment (Woodside and Martin 2007, Çımat and
Bahar 2003).

The Current State of Turkish Tourism Industry

It has been reasonably argued that the Turkish tourism industry efficiently
carries out the task of the locomotive of national improvement with the huge
progress it has made, especially after 1980. In the context of the decisions
taken in 24 January 1980, import substitution policy was abandoned and
export-oriented industrialization, considered to be the main prerequisite for
establishing a free-market economy in Turkey, was introduced (Bahar 2006). A
new attitude towards tourism was adopted according to which it is regarded as
an easy, efficient, productive and relatively cheap tool for realizing the plan of
export-oriented industrialization and should be utilized as such. Taking a look
at the relevant figures further supports the above argument: the share of
tourism in Turkish gross national product (GNP) increased from 0.6% (1980)
to 4.7% (2013), its share in export revenue increased from 11.2% to 24.3%
while the relevant share in narrowing foreign trade deficit increased from 6.5%
to 26.2% during the same period (Turkish Statistical Institute 2013). Besides,
the growth of tourism industry lead to massive job creation for the Turkish
standards, resulting in increased employment (of over one million employed
people) which corresponds to 5.5% of the working population in Turkey today.
If informal employment is reckoned, the number of the employed individuals
goes up to 2.5 million (Turkish Ministry of Development 2013).
Despite the astounding performance the tourism industry has demonstrated
within the boundaries imposed by the specificity of the Turkish economy (Hara
2008), Turkish tourism industry data show that there is a quite large gap
between qualitative and quantitative tourism growth (Yildiz 2011). Evidently,
the level of qualitative tourism growth falls behind the quantitative growth.
Quantitative growth (measured in incoming tourists) is estimated to the level of
300% during the period between 2001 and 2012 while negative qualitative
growth (measured in average expense per tourist) of a level of around 15% is
observed in the same period (Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2013,
Turkish Statistical Institute 2013). In the light shed by these data, it will be
argued in this paper that there is space for both increasing the quantitative
growth of Turkish tourism industry and achieving the target of positive
qualitative growth.
According to the figures available by the national statistical service,
Turkish tourism industry has been constantly rising through time. The number
of tourists coming to Turkey was equal to 10.4 million in 2000, 21.5 million in
2005 and it is estimated to reach nearly 35 million in 2013. As discussed
above, Turkish tourism industry gained speed quantitatively, yet it could not
achieve qualitative growth with the rate of expense per tourist coming to
Turkey decreasing every year. The global average of the expense rate per
tourist is nearly 1,035 USD, while this rate is approximately 680 USD in

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Turkey. In order for qualitative as well as quantitative growth to increase

further, Turkish tourism industry should head towards and try to adapt to the
international standards associated to high expense rates per capita. In this
context, gastronomy tourism comes in the centre of attention as the most
efficient tourism type for Turkish tourism industry to grow qualitatively
(Sarıoğlan 2013).
The cultural diversity and uniqueness of Turkish cuisine is considered to
have significant potential for improving gastronomy tourism as well as the
general tourism product qualitatively. Defined as the cradle of civilization and
having hosted many different, distinct cultures, Anatolia is regarded as the
most important element that shapes Turkish cuisine's culture and diversity.
Within this scope, these characteristics of the Turkish cuisine elevate it to one
of the three great cuisines worldwide, along with the French and the Chinese
cuisines. However, Turkish tourism industry is unable to utilize its current
potential in gastronomy tourism. The most important reason is that there is no
promotion strategy such as the provision of a geographical map of the various
gastronomic elements of the Turkish cuisine for the tourists In this context, the
basic point made by this study is that there is a need for a promotion strategy of
gastronomy elements in Turkey (Avcikurt et al. 2007, Aymankuy and
Sarıoğlan 2007).

The Current State of Gastronomy Tourism

According to World Tourism Organization, there are 300 different types of

tourism to invest in. However, it is not profitable to make all these investments
in the context of one country and it is the responsibility of the public and
private investors to choose the appropriate ones according to each country's
specific characteristics and act accordingly. Turkey is lucky enough to be able
to host various tourism types thanks to its natural, cultural and historical
background. However, the state as well as the private initiative in its majority
appears to fail to recognize the importance of diversifying the tourism product
and performing different marketing and sales activities for each type. Being a
company that does research on the diversity of the tourism product globally,
Specialty Travel says that Turkey can engage in the provision of at least eighty
five different tourism products with ease. If the tourism products and services
are diversified on the basis of a well-designed plan, alternative tourism types
could be introduced in the country and the Turkish tourism product could
appeal to broader audiences (Güzel 2010, Turkish Ministry of Cultrure and
Tourism 2007). There are many different products which could be provided by
the Turkish industry and ensure the needed qualitative growth. However, the
most advantageous one is the gastronomy product as the Anatolian region is
ideal for its development (Göker 2012, Görkem and Öztürk 2011).
Gastronomy tourism is currently among the developing tourism types in
the world. According to many relevant studies, the regions that emphasize in
offering local products could increase their popularity more by raising
awareness regarding their specificity (Karahan et al. 2013). Being a cultural

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element in its nature, gastronomic diversity has been a tourist attraction and it
has also enabled the preservation and development of cooking and eating
habits in the region. The activity of eating can be ordinary in some cultures
while it can be more spiritual and multi-dimensional, in the sense that it
incorporates various meanings, in some others. This variety creates to visitors
the sense of breaking some taboos regarding food and it also arouses their
desire to be liberated by these new taste experiences. As a result, people tend to
travel to regions where there are different tastes in order to satisfy this curiosity
of theirs (Hjalager and Richards 2004). Nowadays that the desire for new tastes
is increasing new tourism-related opportunities wait to be grasped. In order for
the Turkish tourism industry to keep up to this developments, the production
process of the variety of the Turkish meals and disserts should be analyzed
thoroughly from the selection of the raw materials to the consumption stage
and suitable market techniques should be employed. For instance, the Turkish
gastronomy marketing could be based on those raw materials and their special
characteristics attributed to their local production. Highlighting the advanced
quality of raw materials being produced in each region and linking it to the
very fact that their production is local should attract tourists' interest in the
regions where "food tastes uniquely". If the marketing ideas proposed above
were to be realized appropriately, they could shape visitors' preferences
regarding their holiday destinations and create loyal admirers of the Turkish
countries and villages (Yüncü 2010, Kivela and Crotts 2006).
Gastronomy tourism could contribute in increasing Turkey's market share
and tourism incomes by attracting high-income tourists, positively influencing
the expense per tourist, decreasing seasonality and spreading tourism demand
into the 12 months of the full year (Durlu-Özkaya et al. 2013). Ottoman and
Turkish cuisine, which are considered to be among the richest cuisines in the
world, could be the basis of a broad touristic market with the right destination
branding, positioning and image (Hatipoğlu et al. 2013, Henderson 2009).
Recently, the interest in good food in Europe has become literally a
movement with gourmet and gastronomy tours emerging as the most popular
tourism products for intellectual, high-income tourists. Groups that organize
tours to Italy or France for exploring an ethnic cuisine and for a good local
drink experience are only a few among many examples indicating the
development of gastronomy tourism (Conway and Timms 2010). Barcelona
gained an important part of its tourism income from gastronomy, thanks to its
food-beverage activities held every year. Tourists going to Loire, France to
taste cheese; going to Smola, Norway for salmon; to Sontos, Brazil for coffee
and to the Catalan region in Spain for Gaspacco soup could be seen as
examples of gastronomy tourism (Kivela and Crotts 2005).
The fact that the share of gastronomy tourism demonstrates an upward
trend is also supported by the hard figures. According to Table 1, international
tourism was on average growing by 6% yearly in the 1990-2015 period, while
gastronomy tourism showed annual growth of about 15.5% on average during
the same period. Apparently, it showed nearly 2.5 times greater quantitative

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growth compared to overall international tourism in terms of annual average

growth rates in 1990-2015.

Table 1. The Place of Gastronomy Tourism in International Tourism

Movements
International International Gastronomy
Tourism Movements Tourism Movements
Volume of Volume of
Yearly Yearly
Years Average Average
Average Average
Touristic Touristic
Change Rate Change Rate
Movement Movement
(%) (%)
(million people) (million people)
1990-1995 472 3.42 3,74 4.98
1996-2000 598 4.95 4,98 6.63
2001-2005 714 3.87 9,54 15.26
2006-2010 923 8.23 20,62 23.53
2011-2015 1,368 9.64 48,79 27.32
Source: World Tourism Organization 2013, Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2013,
Turkish Statistical Institute 2013.

As individuals who choose gastronomy tourism generally belong to the

high ends of their country's income distribution, their expenditure rates per
capita are quite high. As shown in Table 2, there was a nearly 6.2% annual
growth in the incomes obtained from international tourism movement during
1990-2015, while gastronomy tourism showed approximately 12.9% annual
growth in the same period. Gastronomy tourism demonstrated approximately
double qualitative growth compared to international tourism in this specific
period.

Table 2. The Place of Gastronomy Tourism Incomes in International Tourism

Incomes
International International Gastronomy
Tourism Movements Tourism Movements
Average Yearly Average Yearly
Years
Touristic Average Touristic Average
Expenditure Change Rate Expenditure Change Rate
(per capita $) (%) (per capita $) (%)
1990-1995 348 5.12 234 7.67
1996-2000 461 6.49 357 10.51
2001-2005 617 6.76 589 13.59
2006-2010 835 7.06 1,012 14.36
2011-2015 1,083 5.94 1,786 15.29
Source: World Tourism Organization 2013, Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2013,
Turkish Statistical Institute 2013.

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Gastronomy Tourism in Turkey

The Turkish cuisine is the third greatest cuisine of the world, after the
Chinese and the French cuisine (Güler 2010) providing the country with a great
comparative advantage for investing in this type of tourism. This comparative
advantage could also serve as the decisive factor in favour of Turkey in the
competition against the other Mediterranean countries which are among the
biggest rivals of the Turkish tourism industry. Gastronomy tourism also
increases considerably invisible export rates thanks to the fact that it stems
from national culture itself and that it provides a food and beverage collection
from local resources (Sarıoğlan 2013). Research on this topic has shown that
the invisible export rate associated to gastronomy tourism is nearly 36.87%
higher compared to other tourism types (Turkish Statistical Institute 2013).
Touristic movements can also be seen in the full year decisively dealing with
the problem of seasonality, as gastronomy tourism is independent from weather
conditions. Additionally, seasonal unemployment problems could be solved by
this elimination of seasonality (Long 2004).
National tourism movements were annually growing by 9.4% on average
during 1990-2015, while gastronomy tourism showed annual growth of 15.5%
during the same period. Gastronomy tourism showed about 1.7 times faster
quantitative growth than national tourism during 1990-2015 (Table 3).

Table 3. The Place of National (Turkey) Tourism Movements in International

Tourism Movements
National (Turkey) International Gastronomy
Tourism Movements Tourism Movements
Average Yearly Average Yearly
Years
Touristic Average Touristic Average
Movement Change Rate Movement Change Rate
(million people) (%) (million people) (%)
1990-1995 6,72 7.61 3,74 4.98
1996-2000 8,81 6.24 4,98 6.63
2001-2005 12,96 9.47 9,54 15.26
2006-2010 22,57 14.83 20,62 23.53
2011-2015 32,64 8.92 48,79 27.32
Source: World Tourism Organization 2013, Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2013,
Turkish Statistical Institute 2013.

The income obtained from national tourism movements grew by

approximately 2.8% on average every year of the 1990-2015 period, while
gastronomy tourism showed approximately 12.9% annual growth in the same
period. Gastronomy tourism showed nearly 4.5 times greater qualitative growth
in terms of yearly growth rates in 1990-2015 (Table 4).

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Table 4. The Place of National (Turkey) Tourism Incomes in International

Tourism Incomes
National (Turkey) International Gastronomy
Tourism Movements Tourism Movements
Average Average
Years Yearly Average Yearly Average
Touristic Touristic
Change Rate Change Rate
Expenditure Expenditure
(%) (%)
(per capita $) (per capita $)
1990-1995 603 8.46 234 7.67
1996-2000 801 24.71 357 10.51
2001-2005 775 -3.24 589 13.59
2006-2010 716 -7.61 1,012 14.36
2011-2015 658 -8.11 1,786 15.29
Source: World Tourism Organization 2013, Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2013,
Turkish Statistical Institute 2013.

Result and Recommendations

In the light shed by the figures above, the quantitative and qualitative
growth necessary for the improvement of the Turkish tourism industry could
only be achieved by the focusing on the development of gastronomy tourism.
The most important element in the evolution of gastronomy tourism sector is
designing a gastronomy promotion strategy regarding what specific food&
drink experiences are available to the visitors to enjoy and where they can
enjoy them. In this context, a gastronomy map, should be produced and offered
to visitors. There are six different gastronomy maps in France, five in Spain
and Italy, four in Mexico and China, which cannot be a coincidence as all of
them are countries with important market shares in gastronomy tourism. In
summary, it is argued that gastronomy maps, as a marketing technique, and the
touristic market share obtained from gastronomy tourism are directly
proportional. Turkish tourism industry definitely needs to carefully design such
a map in order to develop gastronomy tourism and acquire the desired market
share.

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