Covid-19 Sürecinde Türkiye'deki Gastronomi Destinasyonlarının Dijitalleşme Açısından Rekabetçiliklerinin Değerlendirilmesi (Evaluation of Competitiveness of Gastronomy Destinations in Turkey in Terms of Digitalization During Covid-19)

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic, which has affected the whole world, has led to crises in many areas. While all sectors focused on developing new strategies during this crisis period, the tourism sector, which plays an essential role in the services industry, has taken steps towards digitalization to gain a competitive advantage with its resources. From this perspective, the critical gastronomic destinations located in Turkey aimed to detect the activities of this challenging process to digitize the situation. In the study, three cities that were included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and registered in the field of gastronomy in Turkey and three cities whose application process to the network is still in progress were compared. In the qualitative method-based research, two primary research questions and sub-problems were developed. Document analysis was used in data collection, and content analysis was used in data analysis. According to the findings obtained, it has been determined that Gaziantep, one of the registered gastronomy destinations during the epidemic, and Adana, one of the gastronomy destinations whose registration process continues, stood out. When these two prominent destinations are compared in terms of their digitalized activities, it has been determined that Adana is more competitive because it is more successful in six of the eight criteria.