Abstract:

Destination branding is becoming increasingly important in terms of the possibility of countries or regions to differentiate themselves. In recent years, gastronomic tourism, which has increased its value and has become the focus of people’s interest, has played an important role in the marketing of destinations. In this context, the marketing of the gastronomic values that the destinations possess is very important in terms of the destination branding. From here, the purpose of this research is to determine the impact of gastronomic tourism towards the branding of the Trabzon destination. The research method was adopted and the survey technique was preferred in the collection of data. The prepared survey was applied to local tourists visiting the province of Trabzon through the web-based environment in December 2020. As a result of the analyses made, meaningful results were obtained that supported a large part of the research hypotheses. According to the research findings, it is also found that the Trabzon cuisine has a brand value and the local gastronomy has contributed to the city’s branding. Despite this, the research has also observed that Trabzon is in the forefront with its very natural beauty than its gastronomy and that the visits to Trabzon for gastronomic purposes are quite low. This study Sertan ÇATAKLI's Sakarya University of Applied Sciences Graduate Education Institute of Tourism Business Administration Dr. Öğr. Member Recep YILDIRGAN was completed by the master's thesis entitled "The Effect of Gastronomy Tourism on Destination Markup: A Research in the Trabzon Province".