Analysis of Turkish Government Cultural Portal for Supporting Gastronomy Tourism

Authors: Hilmi Rafet Yüncü

Abstract:

Today Internet has very important role to promote products and services all over the world. Companies and destinations in tourism industry use Internet to sell and to promote their core products to directly potential tourists. Internet technologies have redefined the relationships between tourists, tourism companies, and travel agents. The new relationship allows for accessing and tapping tourism information and services. Internet technologies ensure new opportunities to available for the tourism industry, including travel accommodation, and tourist destination organizations. Websites are important devices to the marketing of a destination. Most people make a research about the destination before arriving via internet. Governments have a considerable role in the process of marketing tourism destinations. Governments make policies and regulations; furthermore, they help to market destinations to potential tourists. Governments have a comprehensive overview of the sector to see changes in tourism market and design better policies, programs and marketing plans. At the same time, governments support developing of alternative tourism in the country with regulations and marketing tools. The aim of this study is to analyse of an Internet website of governmental tourism portal in Turkey to determine effectiveness about gastronomy tourism. The Turkish government has established a culture portal for foreign and local tourists. The Portal provides local and general information about tourism attractions of cities and Turkey. There are 81 official cities in Turkey and all these cities are conducted to analyse to determine how effective marketing is done by Turkish Government in the manner of gastronomy tourism. A content analysis will be conducted to Internet website of the portal with food content, recipes and gastronomic feature of cities.

Keywords: Content analysis, culture portal, gastronomy tourism, Turkey.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1124029

References:

[1] Kivela, J., & Crotts, J. C. (2006). Tourism and gastronomy: gastronomy's influence on how tourists experience a destination. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 30(3), 354-377.
[2] Y.C. Lin, T. E. Pearson& L.A. Cai. (2011). Food as a form of destination identity: A tourism destination brand perspective. Tourism and Hospitality Research. Vol. 11, 1, 30–48
[3] S. Boyne, D. Hall & F. Williams. (2003). Policy, Support and Promotion for Food-Related Tourism Initiatives, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 14:3-4, 131-154
[4] R. Fox (2007). Reinventing the gastronomic identity of Croatian tourist destinations. Hospitality Management 26, 546–559
[5] A. Mak, M. Lumbers, A. Eves (2012). Globalisation and food consumption in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 171–196,
[6] C. M. Hall and R. Mitchell (2001). Wine and food tourism. In: N. Douglas, N. Douglas and R. Derrett (eds.). Special Interest Tourism: Context and Cases. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 307 – 329
[7] J. S. Horng and C. T. Tsai (2012). Culinary Tourism Strategic Development: An Asia-Pacific Perspective. International Journal of Tourism Research. 14-40-55
[8] J. S. Horng and C. T. Tsai (2009). Government websites for promoting East Asian culinary tourism: A cross-national analysis. Tourism Management 31: 74–85
[9] R. W. Hallett and J. Kaplan Weinger. (2010). Official Tourism Websites. A Discourse Analysis Perspective. Channel View Publication.
[10] C. M. Hall and A. Valentin (2004). Content Analysis. pp. 191-211. In Tourism Research Method: Integrating Theory with Practice. Ed. B.W. Ritchie, P. Burns & C. Palmer. CABI
[11] D. Fennell. (2001). A Content Analysis of Ecotourism Definition. Current Issue in Tourism. Vol. 4(5). 403-421
[12] Y.H. Kim, J.(J.) Yuan, B. K. Goh & J. M. Antun. (2009). Web marketing in food tourism: a content analysis of web sites in West Texas, Journal of Culinary Science & Technology, 7:1, 52-64
[13] A. Dupeyras and N. MacCallum. (2013). Indicators for measuring competitiveness in tourism. OECD Paper 2013/02 OECD Publishing DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k47t9q2t923-en
[14] F. Okumus, G. Kock, M. M. G. Scantlebury & B. Okumus. (2013). Using local cuisines when promoting small Caribbean island destinations, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30:4, 410-429, DOI: 10.1080/10548408.2013.784161