Starting route: Istanbul street food

Abstract

The gastronomy routes, which have the functions of diversifying tourism products, increasing the gastronomy tourism quality, creating attraction, and contributing social and economic development, are thought to be especially necessary in Istanbul. Integrating Istanbul's historical, cultural, and natural structure with the city’s street food and turning them into a route is considered beneficial in various aspects. In this context the aim of the research is to create Istanbul street food routes, considering the outline formed within existing gastronomy-themed routes. In order to achieve the goal, the data were gathered from 36 gastronomy-themed routes in Istanbul presented on TripAdvisor were analyzed. The findings such as duration and width of routes, language options offered, cultural and historical sites visited and passed by in the routes, presented food categories, street food varieties according to districts, and experience offered are used to develop suggestions for Istanbul street food route.