Gastronomic festival tours in Turkey: Motivations and expectations of tourists

The demand for gastronomy tourism has been increasing in recent years, and gastronomy tours and festivals are marketed as an important gastronomic product in meeting this demand. However, research on the motivation and expectations of tourists participating in gastronomy festivals are still not sufficient in the literature. In this study, it is aimed to determine the motivation and expectations of tourists who participated in the tours organized under the name of gastronomic festival tours. Face to face interviews were carried out with 23 tourists who participated in three different gastronomic festival tours arranged in Turkey. In the light of the findings, the motivations of tourists participating in gastronomic festival tours were evaluated within the scope of push and pull factors. Expectations of tourists from gastronomic festival tours were classified into five categories as general services, relations with other people, environmental conditions and internal expectations, which were especially for products/activities that are the focal point of the tours.