Abstract:

Abstract As a result of globalization, marketing activities have gained and continue to gain much more importance in every field due to the increasing competition between sectors / nations and even cities. As in other sectors, marketing activities must be carried out effectively in tourism in order to have a place in this competition in the global arena. In this sense, some of the abilities that can be used as a tool in the promotion of destinations can be described as gastronomy elements and gastronomy identity. The method of the study is document analysis, which is frequently used in qualitative research methods. In this context, firstly, the gastronomic elements of Hatay, Gaziantep and Afyonkarahisar destinations, which have been included in the Creative Cities Network as UNESCO Gastronomy City, from Turkey, based on the "Typology of Culinary Tourism Resources" model of Smith and Xaio (2008). Secondly, the gastronomic identities of these destinations were tried to be determined by starting from Harrington's (2005) "Gastronomic Identity" model. For this, first of all, gastronomic elements and gastronomic identity are conceptually discussed; Afterwards, a comparative table was prepared based on the first model and gastronomy identities were revealed based on the second model. In the conclusion part of the study, the gastronomic elements of the three destinations and the emerging gastronomy identities were compared and suggestions were made for the destinations.

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