With more than 20 years of experience, Sözen Organization realizes events such as Gastromasa, Gastroway and GastroAntep that have an impact in Turkey and the world. International Tourism Gastronomy Investments and Hospitality Summit FSUMMIT; brought together tourism, gastronomy and hospitality sector stakeholders at Antalya Nest Convention Center. Tourism professionals at FSUMMIT, which was held on March 20-21 with the theme of “TOGETHER: DESTINATION & BRANDING”; they discussed all aspects of the tourism, gastronomy and hospitality industry with panels that deal with many topics such as trends in the world, innovative approaches, sustainability and investment plans. World-famous Michelin and Gault & Millau award-winning chefs Thomas Bühner, Yoshizumi Nagaya, Javier Cocheteaux, Javier Cocheteaux T., Joe Barza, Cristina Bowerman and Luigi Taglienti were at the summit too.
Speaking at the opening, Sözen Group CEO Gökmen Sözen thanked all NGOs and institutions that supported the event and pointed out the importance of gastronomy tourism. Talking about Michelin and Gault & Millau, one of the world’s most prestigious restaurant rating systems, which are important in terms of gastronomic tourism, Sözen said: “There are 2 catalogs in the world where restaurants are rated. One of them is Michelin; it has came to Turkey. It is very important for Turkey. It is very important for Turkey’s restaurant and chef marketing. But we also brought Gault & Millau, the second best catalog in the world, to Turkey. For this, we targeted not only Istanbul but also four destinations. We added the Marmara Region, the Aegean Region, and the Mediterranean Region as well. Because the Mediterranean cities have a very high tourism potential.” Stating that they are happy to bring Gault & Millau, which is located in 17 countries of the world, to Turkey, Sözen said, “Antakya and Gaziantep were very important. Many places in Gaziantep and Antakya were destroyed by the earthquake. Let me give you the good news here. We will rank them again. We will do this with the knowledge we have received from the past.” he said.
FSummit hosted world-famous Michelin and Gault & Millau award-winning chefs such as Thomas Bühner, Yoshizumi Nagaya, Javier Cocheteaux, Javier Cocheteaux T., Joe Barza, Cristina Bowerman and Luigi Taglienti.
Focusing on highlighting the destination attractiveness factor for Turkey’s branding in gastronomy tourism, the summit was instrumental in establishing new dialogues between stakeholders with many events held over two days. In the panels and conferences where important building blocks such as the development of Turkish gastronomy tourism, boutique hotels, city hotels, restaurants in tourism destinations, food supply chains and travel agencies were examined in depth, investors, operators and gastronomy professionals from the world and Turkey shared their sectoral knowledge and experiences with the guests. In the organization, which included workshops, solution demonstrations and tasting experiences as well as sessions, visitors also had the opportunity to visit the stands where national and international food, beverage, industrial kitchen, tourism, tabletop equipment companies and more exhibited their products.
