Ethnic Restaurants context of Sustainable Tourism and Gastronomy: A Theoretical Analysis

Abstract

In a period when international human mobility is increasing around the world, ethnic restaurants attract attention as spatialized forms of ethnic diversity and areas of interaction and meeting of different cultures. This study, which is a theoretical evaluation, carried out a conceptual discussion on the axis of sustainability through secondary data on ethnic restaurants. In this context, it has been observed that food and beverage businesses, which are very important stakeholders of tourism, exhibit a practice inherent in the sustainability paradigm with the 'ethnic' concept, and also play a functional role in terms of the sustainability of destinations. Ethnic restaurants are mostly nourished by international migration and integration processes; however, it has also been determined that it is an important sustainable tourism element in terms of discovering, preserving, and carrying cultural heritage to the future. While ethnic restaurants have been developing worldwide both in number and diversity; they have also developed the destinations. At this point, it can be seen that restaurant management in general and ethnic restaurants in particular support sustainable gastronomy and gastronomy tourism. Ethnic restaurants offer a suitable structure for sustainable gastronomy establishment; they have been evaluated that contributes to the sustainable development and image of destinations as an authentic and traditional element of attraction. At the same time, it is thought that they can contribute to the reduction of economic, sociocultural, and social problems through the interaction of different ethnicities.