Slow food and food tourism: Foça earth market case study

Destinations are most attractive for the tourists with their unique cultural elements and food is a substantial amount of the unique local identity. Therefore, food tourism has always been a very important aspect of the destination and tourists have always been eager to try unique tastes of the culinary culture in the destination they are visiting. In this thesis study, the concepts of food tourism and food tourists are explained in detail and their importance in the context of destinations is mentioned with concrete reasons. On the other hand, the industrial revolution, which took place recently, created today's highly integrated and typical global markets. This rapid change also forced people around the world to have a typical life style with common interests, hobbies and tastes. This standardization and singularity affected nations’ culinary culture and created monotype, relatively tasteless and “fast” food. As a result, the culinary cultures of different places started to dissolve. This was a reflection of the globalized and similarized world and it made an impact on the food cultures of communities, even exposing them to the danger of perishing. This problem necessitated a comprehensive movement to protect the unique food cultures of nations, as they are a significant part of the destinations’ identities. Slow Food movement was born in the 1980’s as an answer to this progress and became a major influence for countries. Starting in Italy, Slow Food is a highly recognized, almost brand-like, organization and movement around the world today. It has strict regulations and the main aim of this organization is to protect the cultural food heritage besides ensuring a healthy agricultural production. The basic principles of this movement, such as good, clean and fair food, and the brief history of the organization are explained thoroughly in this thesis study. viii Being an active Slow Food point and carrying out the regulations and principles of Slow Food create a certain attraction for destinations. The main reason behind this is that Slow Food is a worldwide-recognized organization and it creates an attraction point for green tourists, food tourists and ordinary tourists with its support to sustainable local production besides offering cultural experiences, providing ethical tourism mobility and protecting the local identity. This study also discusses the effects of Slow Food on the destination’s food culture and food production as well as the touristic attraction it creates in the context of food tourism. For this purpose, Earth Markets, which are solid applications of Slow Food, are investigated in this thesis and through the case study of Foça Earth Market. Foça is a seaside town in Turkey near Izmir and it is a major touristic destination. Therefore, the Earth Market in Foça is a perfect example for investigating the effects of Slow Food principles on a destination. The thesis' objective is to show how the application of Earth Markets create an attraction and at the same time protects both the local producers and the local values of the destination in order to obtain a balanced result for the touristic activities, sustainability and economic benefits. The research about Foça Earth Market was conducted face-to-face in the market area as structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and on-site observations. The collected data were then evaluated by the help of qualitative research techniques and the results were explained thoroughly. According to the research results, Slow Food’s regulations are followed in Foça Earth Market and therefore, it helps to protect the local identity and products. Also, since Slow Food is a well known brand it adds to the image of the destination and it is observed that it has an important role for destination attractiveness in the context of food tourism. It is found in the research results that the Slow Food applications contribute to touristic development of destinations but at the same time provide a sustainable production and protect the local economy creating a balance for the stakeholders and the destination