Evaluation of gastronomy festivals: Perspectives of professional tourist guides

Abstract

Event-based types of tourism are known as the cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation, which not only promotes tourism, but also allows important social interactions to be established (Dredge & Whitford, 2011). Festivals that take place within event tourism occupy an important place in destination marketing and are one step ahead of their competitors since they contain cultural identity elements unique to the region. Festivals, in addition to developing the image of the destination positively, as well as gaining an important place in tourist attractions, take place as a motivating element for the tourist to choose this destination. For this reason, destination managers are trying to create tourist demand by holding festivals based on a specific theme in addition to other attractiveness factors (Özdemir & Çulha, 2009). Therefore, developing as an alternative type of tourism plays an important role in economic development in parallel with the number of visitors and tourism income in the destination where it occurs (Pirnar, Kurtural, & Tütüncüoğlu, 2019). In line with the rich culinary culture of Anatolia, it is also common for gastronomy, which is one of the elements of local culture, to be the subject of festivals. Gastronomy festivals is an organization that brings local cuisine together with world cuisines and initiates cultural interaction. Because the opinions of the individuals participating in the gastronomy festival are not received enough, the managers who organize the festivals cannot ensure the satisfaction of the participants (Büyükşalvarcı & Akkaya, 2018). In this study, it was aimed to obtain the opinions of professional tourist guides participating in gastronomy festivals and to evaluate the impressions related to gastronomy festivals. According to the results obtained in the study, recommendations are made on the development and planning of gastronomy festivals. Qualitative research methods are used in the research. Qualitative research includes motivations such as learning more about a subject, the desire to develop it, and finding more detailed answers to questions (Merriam, 2015). In this context, it offers detailed information about gastronomy festivals and how local and foreign visitors participating in it are evaluated from the point of view of professional tourist guides. From qualitative research patterns to phenomenological patterns, descriptive phenomenology is the pattern of research. Phenomenology is a study that emphasizes how participants experience a particular process or event and tries to explain it (Sart, 2017). The phenomenon that is the subject of experience in this research is gastronomy festivals. As a data collection tool, Document Review and interview technique was preferred. Data was obtained from Semi-Structured Interview Questions conducted for the literature and purpose of the research. The interview process, which took place between 15.02.2021 and 01.03.2021, was carried out by phone due to the pandemic. In the study, snowball sampling, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods, was preferred. Snowball sampling, participants first identify and interview a few people that have the property of interest (they have the names of people who are similar to the characteristics of themselves for new participants through the process of reaching routing request includes (Berg & Lune, 2015). Because the researchers who conducted the interview were professional tourist guides, it was not difficult to reach the tourist guides who guided the tours held at gastronomy festivals, and other tourist guides were also reached thanks to the request for guidance. 8967 tourist guides with national and regional action are guiding the universe of research in Turkey. Its sample is composed of national and regional tourist guides participating in gastronomy festivals. The two most important factors determining sample size are data saturation and data adequacy. In other words, the data collection phase must be terminated when the information obtained from the field begins to be repeated (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013). As a result of voluntary interviews and audio recordings received, 12 people were reached, and the interviews were terminated due to the repetition of the data after certain interviews. The main and sub-themes were determined in accordance with the literature conducted by deductive and deductive methods, and the qualitative data obtained were reorganized. Content analysis was used as a data analysis method. Content analysis is used to determine the existence of words, concepts, themes, idioms, characters, or sentences within one or more texts and to count them. Without text, oral communication tools such as speeches and interviews are used, they are written and examined (Kızıltepe, 2017). As result of interviews with 12 professional tourist guides the data obtained and it have been deciphered as document. The data obtained by defining the MAXQDA 2020 qualitative data analysis program is read and encoded in accordance with the main and sub-themes. Credibility of results in qualitative research is an important issue. Validity and reliability are considered the two most used criteria in research from this point of view. Validity is the subject of the accuracy of research results. Reliability, on the other hand, is related to the repeatability of research results. Proximity to the field of research in validity, collecting information directly through face-to-face interviews and in the natural environment in which the event occurred, the ability to go back to the field to confirm the information obtained, and the ability to collect additional information are important features that ensure the validity of qualitative research. Among the methods that provide reliability, concepts such as credibility, transferability, consistency, and confirmability are used (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013). Within the scope of the reliability of the research, a compromise between coders was reached and the strategy of consulting field experts was used. As a result of the research, it was found that the demand for gastronomy festivals has increased especially in the last 5 years and has received a lot of attention. But organizing tours to gastronomy festivals brings many challenges from the point of view of the tourist guide. Because gastronomy festivals cover a few days process, the intensity and crowd at the destination where the festival was held at that time cause the tour programs to be disrupted. Due to the high occupancy rate of restaurants, the quality of food and drink services has decreased. It was stated that most complaints about tours occurred during this period. Although festivals that take place in mass, where there is a density in many transport vehicles, have a high impact on economic development, their impact on the layout of the city is negative. For developing destinations, gastronomy festivals are an important event for promotion. The fact that the tourist, rather than the narrative of the tourist guide, is intertwined with the local population and experiences many elements on the spot supports the catchphrase of promotion in the context of introducing local culture. Interest in gastronomic products is growing, local and foreign tourists are getting information about products that have not yet been introduced. For this reason, the identification of the destination with this product takes place and gastronomy festivals make a significant contribution to the creation of brand destinations. It is stated that destination management organizations should determine the right planning strategies, especially in destinations where infrastructure services are not developed or cannot handle mass tourism. However, security measures are among the most mentioned issues. Environmental pollution is seen as the biggest disadvantage that such activities harm the environment at high rate.