Evaluation of the Gastronomy Tourism Potential of Karaman Province by Swot Analysis

In this study; It is aimed to determine the gastronomic tourism potential of Karaman province, to identify and analyze the strengths-weaknesses and opportunities-threats in terms of gastronomy tourism, and also to make suggestions for the development of gastronomic tourism activities in the region. While tourism business operators or managers operating in Karaman and tourism field academicians constitute the universe of the research, 19 people consisting of tourism business operators or managers and tourism academicians who volunteer to participate in the research constitute the sample of the research. Interview technique, one of the qualitative data collection techniques, was used in the research. In the interviews with the participants; It has been determined that Karaman province is a developed province in terms of gastronomic tourism, and it has been determined that the local food variety and agricultural product variety of the region are high, and the local people live the local dishes. In addition, the existence of high school and university-level educational institutions providing gastronomy and culinary education in the region, the existence of societies with advanced food culture such as Seljuk and Ottoman in the region's geography, and the province's proximity to provinces such as Konya and Mersin, which have high gastronomic tourism potential, are important values that can be used in the field of gastronomy tourism and gastronomy. shows that it can come to the fore in studies that will be focused on