Investigation of gastronomy values in terms of authenticity of Afyonkarahisar province in the unesco creative cities network

Abstract

With the effect of globalization, on the one hand, values tend to disappear, on the other hand, it is seen that the interest in the authentic and local is increasing day by day. The concept of authenticity is defined as the whole of the cultural components of a destination, such as works of art, clothing, language, belief, festivals, rituals, architecture, and cuisine. It is important that the city has the main historical features of the destinations with high authenticity. In this context, Afyonkarahisar province, which was included in the Creative Cities Network as a UNESCO Gastronomy City in 2019 and which hosts various culture, art and natural beauties as a historical city, was preferred in the research. Although Afyonkarahisar is a gastronomy city, the inadequacy of studies on the gastronomy elements and authenticity of the city in the relevant literature constitutes the importance of the research. For this reason, in this research, a conceptual framework is drawn for the authenticity of Afyonkarahisar in the field of gastronomy by analyzing documents for the province of Afyonkarahisar within the scope of the concept of authenticity and the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. As a result of the research, various opinions and suggestions have been developed for the authenticity of Afyonkarahisar’s gastronomic elements.