Abstract:

Tourism and gastronomy are concepts that must be addressed together, with a positive impact on regional development, destination originality and branding, with a triggering function for the destination choice. Food experiences are a comprehensive contribution to the holiday experience of tourists. Gastronomy tourism can be developed through repeated visits, much more than tourists who come to a particular destination for the first time. In this sense, Kayseri’s historic beauty, its accessible and local cuisine products can encourage the intention to visit and recommend again by triggering the positive feelings of tourists. With this research, it is believed that the determination of how effective consumer experience in gastronomic tourism is on behavioral intention will contribute to both the sector and literature. The study aims to explore the impact of local cuisine experiences experienced by tourists from the four different restaurants that offer local cuisine products in the province of Kayseri on behavioral intention. In this context, the impact of the experience of local cuisine products on behavioral intention was first studied. In the next phase, the subfactors that form the experience of local kitchen products are measured to the extent to which each of the subfactors affects the separate behavioral intention. The data received from 405 participants marked without errors in the analysis was included. The results of this study show that tourists’ experiences of local cuisine products have a positive impact on their behavioral intention. This result shows that tourists who come to Kayseri are pleased with the experience of local cuisine products, intend to visit again and intend to recommend to others. Also, the subfactors of the experience of local kitchen products (food, communication and space) have a positive impact on separate behavioral intentions. In general, it is possible to say that local cuisine products are becoming more and more important and effective to attract tourists.

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