Yalçın, YavuzYılmaz, Emircan2023-12-192023-12-192023https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12514/5043Today, the phenomenon of food has transformed from the satisfaction of a physiological need into a hedonic experience. Gastronomy has an important role in this transformation. Gastronomy is an interdisciplinary phenomenon and many academic disciplines address this phenomenon from different perspectives (Seyitoğlu & Çalışkan, 2018:524). Tourism is one of these fields. The fact that gastronomy offers touristic experience, supports local development and sustainable tourism, and provides tourists with more permanent and unforgettable experiences can be explained as the main issues examined between gastronomy and tourism (Nebioğlu, 2016:7). In this context, the concept of experience has a critical importance for the tourism sector. Tourists see gastronomic experience as an important part of their travel motivation and enrich their travel experience by having a gastronomic experience during their travels (Agyeiwaah et al., 2019:295). Food and beverage activities are an important element that reflects the natural resources and cultural heritage of a society as well as a basic lifelong human need. In this context, gastronomy tourism can be explained as a type of tourism that creates travel motivation towards a particular destination to experience a new local food and beverage experience and is effective in determining travel behaviors. In addition, gastronomy tourism is a concept that refers to the movement of tourists who visit food and beverage producers, food festivals, restaurants and special gastronomic venues to try a certain type of food or witness the production process of a dish (Hall & Sharples, 2003:10). Thanks to gastronomy tourism, tourists can both get to know the culture, history, geography and people of the region and have a gastronomic experience. Gastronomic experience basically includes food experiences. In terms of gastronomy tourism, it can be defined as the sensory, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and relational reactions that tourists experience as a result of the activities carried out. This experience is related to how tourists perceive, evaluate, feel and remember food and beverages. Gastronomic experience is a complex and dynamic process that is influenced by various components such as the characteristics of the food and the aesthetics of its presentation, the characteristics of the individual, the atmosphere of the environment and the social environment. These components not only constitute the whole gastronomic experience but also interact with each other. It is important to understand each component to enhance the quality and satisfaction of the gastronomic experience. Explaining the components of the gastronomic experience will be beneficial for both the producers and consumers of the experience. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between tourism and gastronomy and to examine the gastronomic experience conceptually. In line with the purpose of the study, a literature review was conducted and theoretical and empirical studies on tourism, gastronomy, gastronomic experience and the components of gastronomic experience were reviewed. In this context, the study first examined the relationship between tourism and gastronomy. Then, the concept of gastronomic experience is explained and the components that make up the gastronomic experience are evaluated in line with the purpose of the study.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessBook Chapter