Tourism Experience Management and Marketing in Gastronomy

Introduction

The experience economy has an important role in contemporary societies, and tourism destinations are increasingly orienting experiential services to gain competitive advantage (Rather & Hollebeek, 2020). Considering the nature of tourism, the relationship between experiential marketing and marketing are considered to be important values (Li & Petrick 2008; Ahn & Back 2018; Rajaobelina 2018). The tourism industry has undergone a significant transformation, including the sharing of social media and economy-based applications by the increased use of new technologies. Customers gradually shape their tourism experience with the help of these technologies, as verified by Pine and Gilmore's (1998) perspective of experiential marketing (Le, Scott & Lohmann 2019).

Tourism businesses gain advantages such as getting ahead of the competition, generating income, and providing customer loyalty by providing customers with pre-service, in-service and post-service experiences (Li & Petrick 2008; Hwangand & Seo 2016; Rajaobelina 2018). Cities are trying to highlight their competitiveness in various fields of tourism (Özkurt & Öcel, 2021). A good experience will keep for a long time in the memory of customers, and will affect the results of their tourism behavior. This is critical for managing the customer's experiential environment, for tourism companies to survive and gain competitive advantage.

Modern tourists express those different needs than travel, which has caused the emergence of certain trends in tourism. These new demands of the modern tourist are mostly based on the following objectives (Shafiee et al., 2021):

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  To orient towards authentic experiences,

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  To experience a destination locally,

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  To search for a unique experience “gold times”.

Tourists now travel more to seek new experiences, validate their personality, and realize their self-worth. However, the modern tourist's tourism experiences are multifaceted and have a dynamic feature that attracts the attention of academics and marketers. Benefiting from factors of gastronomy is expressed as a touristic experience in visited destinations by modern tourists (Park & Njite, 2010). Gastronomic tourism, which is among the demands of modern tourists, is considered as an important tourism area. Gastronomic tourism has been considered a key element in formulating destination and marketing strategies (Dixit, 2020). Gastronomy tourism is based on an authentic product that is defined by regional characteristics that can attract tourists to the region. In this regard, it is suggested to give importance to the experience economy rather than the service economy by providing opportunities that allow tourists to be included in the service process and experience (Rijal & Gihimire, 2016). It is predicted that gastronomy tourism is an element that will meet many needs in passing through from the service economy to the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1999).