The Effects of Local Food and Local Products with Geographical Indication on the Development of Tourism Gastronomy

Various tourism trends have appeared with developing technology. One of them is gastronomy tourism. It is necessary to determine the factors which affect the development of this type of tourism for supply determinants to be successful in marketing activities. Products registered with geographical indication are considered to be one of these elements. In this direction, the purpose of the study is to determine the effects of local food and local products registered with geographical indications on the development of gastronomy tourism. Bolu, which is one of the Turkey’s cities, was selected as implementation area. Data were collected from effective tourists, who visited Bolu, or potential tourists, who have a possibility of visiting Bolu, via questionnaire technique, and 391 questionnaires were reached. Data were solved using statistical package program. Multivariate regression analysis was used to determine the effect of the products registered with geographical indication. According to the research results, the most effective element on the development of gastronomy tourism is local products registered with geographical indications with an impact rate of 60%. The effect of local foods, registered with geographical indication, is 37.7%.