Turizm Haftası Etkinlikleri Kapsamında Yöresel Yemek Yarışmaları: Aksaray Örneği (The Regional Culinary Competitions within the Scope of Tourism Week Activities: The Case of Aksaray)

Abstract

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the tourism sector organize a number of activities every year within the scope of tourism week activities in order to spread tourism to the whole year and raise public awareness on tourism. One of the activities organized is regional culinary competitions. Regional culinary competitions are important for local people to have enough knowledge about their own culinary culture and to introduce the culinary culture to the tourists who come to the region. Regional culinary competitions, on the other hand, are organized in order to compile food consumed for many years or forgotten food, to archive it in writing and visually, to standardize the productions and names of the compiled dishes, to improve health and culture and to reveal culinary culture. Moreover thanks to the symbolic prizes, the regional culinary competitions enable participants to improve themselves by creating a competitive environment. Based on this point of view, four regional culinary competitions were organized in the province of Aksaray since 2015. In this study, the regional culinary competitions organized between the years 2015-2018 in the Aksaray province have been examined and the data obtained were analyzed comparatively. Of the 161 people that participated in competitions from 2015 until now 136 local dishes and desserts 101 was presented to the jury. The competitions were held regularly at Aksaray Culture House every year within the scope of tourism week activities. The study aims to be a guide for the ones who are concerned with the subject and contribute to the existing literature.