Gastronomic Tourism as a Means of Activation Tourist Destinations

Trends in tourism development of the XXI century suggest that one of the promising areas related to the acquaintance with the production, cooking technology and tasting of national dishes and drinks is gastronomic tourism. The concept of forming a tourist product in the form of a gastronomic or culinary tour combines economic, social and cultural values of the territory, covers the climate, traditional agriculture and crafts, art, national customs, traditions and life. That is, gastronomic tourism fully contributes to the development of the tourism sector and is a means of activating the tourist destination. The article deals with the directions of gastronomic tourism development as a means of activating tourist destinations and supporting national producers through the integration of gastronomic tourism into local event resources. The relevance of these issues is determined by the lack of a holistic understanding of the concept of gastronomic tourism, the imperfection of existing recommendations and conclusions on its formation. The purpose of the article is to study the features of gastronomic tourism as a means of enhancing the development of tourism. The article determines that the basis of gastronomic tourism is the features of regional cuisine and culinary traditions of the tourist destination. The scientific novelty of the research results is the deepening of theoretical approaches to the study of gastronomic tourism - a new direction of cultural and cognitive tourism, which is relevant to combine with eco-tourism, tourism in protected areas, rural green tourism. After all, the latter have a large stock of cultural, culinary, authentic traditions that should be revived and developed. Gastronomic tours will form a new vision of tourism in the context of destination development. The article notes that from the point of view of organizing tourist activities, gastronomic tourism includes not only acquaintance with local cuisines of the region, original technologies of local food organization, culinary processes and food traditions, acquaintance with local products, but also the opportunity for tourists to participate in cooking. national dishes, visiting culinary festivals, various types of tastings and competitions.