Mouthwatering assets to tourism
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Betül Çal
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Haziran 29, 2009 00:00
ANTALYA - Now Turkey is not only counting on its bright sunshine, long beaches, blue seas and colorful nightlife when it comes to drawing and entertaining tourists. With the country's huge variety of delicious cuisine, gastronomy tourism is becoming more and more important in Turkey.
Culinary tourism, introduced as an alternative to the common perception of tourism, is growing in popularity. Increasing its part of the total tourism pie, the newly developing tourism branch offers tourists the opportunity to experience a variety of local tastes in addition to learning about the country’s cultural motifs.
Becoming more of a tool to increase publicity of regions, especially within cultural tours, such as Cappadocia or Southeastern Turkey tours, culinary tourism is also worthy of consideration in terms of its contribution to the total tourism income as well as to the general perception of the regions.
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Osman Aydoğan, general secretary of the Tourism Journalists Association, said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that culinary tourism, which is also known as "gastronomy tourism," has not yet developed into an entirely independent type of tourism in Turkey. It is a sub-branch, but a fast developing one, he added.
"The major role of culinary tourism is helping to increase the per capita expenses of tourists. We cannot mention the huge amounts of income at this point, but it greatly contributes to tourists’ general perception of a given destination," Aydoğan said.
Agreeing with AydoÄŸan on the significance of the culinary tourism, Ali Berkay, owner of a restaurant chain in the Adana and Mersin areas, highlighted that the visiting tourists constitute the majority of their guests and income. Coming with pre-arranged tours, the tourists mostly like to taste the local dishes. Some of them even go to the kitchen to learn about the cooking styles, Berkay said.
Good alternative
Bülent Günbek, owner of a restaurant in Antalya, is also among those who believe in the importance of developing culinary tourism. "Culinary tourism is definitely a good alternative to the tourists who are stuck with the monotony of the all-inclusive system. This gives them the opportunity to look around and experience the different tastes of the countries they visit," he said.
Having similar opinions with Günbek about the all-inclusive system, Aydoğan also said: "While trying to develop the regional tourism with all-inclusive system, we are unaware that we actually undermine the other spheres of tourism. Instead of eliminating the supporting branches and standardizing tourism, we should try to form a unity with all these branches, each of which contributes to the development of the others."
Highlighting the importance of Çukurova, the region covering Adana to Mersin, in Turkey’s culinary culture, Tayyar Zaimoğlu, chairman of Çukurova Tourism Hotel Owners Union, or ÇUKTOB, said that they initiated different projects in order to introduce the local dishes to tourism.
"The hotel and restaurant owners have begun to pay special attention to the variety of the local dishes on their menus. We know that 20 to 25 percent of the tourists visiting the Çukurova region come to taste these dishes," he said.
Quite popular in countries that have a distinctive wine culture, such as France, Italy and America, wine tourism has begun to gain ground in Turkey as well. There are companies that organize wine tasting tours where the tourists are hosted in a house for one day and offered wine.
As one of these companies, Vinotolia arranges gastronomy tours around the Cappadocia area with a special emphasis on Cappadocia’s world-famous wines. Filiz Yankı, who runs the company with her husband, said that culinary tourism may be a good opportunity to increase the tourism potential of inner districts that are distant from the trinity of sea, sun and sand.
"Although it may seem easier than the larger scale tourism dominant in the southern part of Turkey, culinary tourism needs special care and a combination of skills. My husband and I are also guides and can speak several languages, which is a great advantage for us to do this job," said Yankı, adding that it is crucial to both cook well and communicate with the guests in their own languages and inform them about each step at the same time.
Filiz Yankı charges her guests 150 to 200 Turkish Liras a person for her service while the more extensive tours, which take a few days and combine culinary tourism with culture and nature tours, cost more.
Becoming more of a tool to increase publicity of regions, especially within cultural tours, such as Cappadocia or Southeastern Turkey tours, culinary tourism is also worthy of consideration in terms of its contribution to the total tourism income as well as to the general perception of the regions.
Â
Osman Aydoğan, general secretary of the Tourism Journalists Association, said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that culinary tourism, which is also known as "gastronomy tourism," has not yet developed into an entirely independent type of tourism in Turkey. It is a sub-branch, but a fast developing one, he added.
"The major role of culinary tourism is helping to increase the per capita expenses of tourists. We cannot mention the huge amounts of income at this point, but it greatly contributes to tourists’ general perception of a given destination," Aydoğan said.
Agreeing with AydoÄŸan on the significance of the culinary tourism, Ali Berkay, owner of a restaurant chain in the Adana and Mersin areas, highlighted that the visiting tourists constitute the majority of their guests and income. Coming with pre-arranged tours, the tourists mostly like to taste the local dishes. Some of them even go to the kitchen to learn about the cooking styles, Berkay said.
Good alternative
Bülent Günbek, owner of a restaurant in Antalya, is also among those who believe in the importance of developing culinary tourism. "Culinary tourism is definitely a good alternative to the tourists who are stuck with the monotony of the all-inclusive system. This gives them the opportunity to look around and experience the different tastes of the countries they visit," he said.
Having similar opinions with Günbek about the all-inclusive system, Aydoğan also said: "While trying to develop the regional tourism with all-inclusive system, we are unaware that we actually undermine the other spheres of tourism. Instead of eliminating the supporting branches and standardizing tourism, we should try to form a unity with all these branches, each of which contributes to the development of the others."
Highlighting the importance of Çukurova, the region covering Adana to Mersin, in Turkey’s culinary culture, Tayyar Zaimoğlu, chairman of Çukurova Tourism Hotel Owners Union, or ÇUKTOB, said that they initiated different projects in order to introduce the local dishes to tourism.
"The hotel and restaurant owners have begun to pay special attention to the variety of the local dishes on their menus. We know that 20 to 25 percent of the tourists visiting the Çukurova region come to taste these dishes," he said.
Quite popular in countries that have a distinctive wine culture, such as France, Italy and America, wine tourism has begun to gain ground in Turkey as well. There are companies that organize wine tasting tours where the tourists are hosted in a house for one day and offered wine.
As one of these companies, Vinotolia arranges gastronomy tours around the Cappadocia area with a special emphasis on Cappadocia’s world-famous wines. Filiz Yankı, who runs the company with her husband, said that culinary tourism may be a good opportunity to increase the tourism potential of inner districts that are distant from the trinity of sea, sun and sand.
"Although it may seem easier than the larger scale tourism dominant in the southern part of Turkey, culinary tourism needs special care and a combination of skills. My husband and I are also guides and can speak several languages, which is a great advantage for us to do this job," said Yankı, adding that it is crucial to both cook well and communicate with the guests in their own languages and inform them about each step at the same time.
Filiz Yankı charges her guests 150 to 200 Turkish Liras a person for her service while the more extensive tours, which take a few days and combine culinary tourism with culture and nature tours, cost more.