VISIONARY ANATOLIA MEETINGS

“Developing City Economies with New Tourism Resources”

KASTAMONU

5 JULY 2019

Honourable Deputy Minister,

Honourable Governor, Honourable Mayor,

Esteemed MÜSİAD Members and Friends,

Esteemed Members of Our Local and National Press,

Here in Kastamonu, where we have come together within the scope of the Visionary Anatolia Meetings, I greet you all with respect; welcome, you have honoured us with your presence.

Our fundamental purpose in organizing these meetings is to contribute to “regional development”, which we regard as one of the important steps on the path to our country's development. We intend to diversify this contribution as business people and as a civil society organization that is aware of the capacity it holds to reach people from every segment of society.

Underlining that Kastamonu, with the economic, natural and cultural resources it possesses, is one of our cities that can be effective in terms of regional development, allow me to elaborate on the subject.

As you know, the realization of economic and social development at the national level depends first of all on eliminating or minimizing the imbalances between regions.

And this can only be achieved through local and regional development.

Today, local administrations and civil society organizations play an important role in ensuring local and regional development.

Because civil society organizations, by using the advantages they possess for the local and regional development of the field in which they operate, have functions capable of ensuring national and social development.

As the world's most widespread civil society organization and a strong capital platform, a great duty falls to MÜSİAD at this point as well.

The “city economy” that cities create is on the one hand connected to the economic course of the country, and on the other hand autonomous; because while cities conduct their trade and investments by using the potential and resources they possess, they also build an economy of their own.

One of the returns of developing city economies, which are among the important cogs of the national economic wheel, is that the city opens its arms to its own children.

Cities that are developed and that compete in their contribution to the national economy beyond mere self-sufficiency will also embrace the people of their own land and will to a large extent remove the phenomenon of internal migration from the agenda in particular.

All these grounds and necessities are precisely why, with the responsibility we feel as MÜSİAD, we dwell meticulously on this subject.

With this responsibility, we determined the Kastamonu leg of our Visionary Anatolia Meetings as “Developing City Economies with New Tourism Resources”.

I would like to summarize, making use of figures, the subject addressed in detailed presentations throughout our meetings:

According to 2017 data, Türkiye ranked 14th in the world and 6th in Europe in tourism revenue by country with USD 22.5 billion, while in the same year it ranked 8th in the world and 5th in Europe in the total number of tourists with 37.6 million.

Our tourism revenue increased by 12.3 percent in 2018 compared with the previous year, reaching USD 29 billion 512 million 926 thousand. As the improvement continued in 2019 as well, tourism revenue in the first quarter rose by 4.6 percent compared with the same quarter of last year.

When we look at the performance and the progress that Türkiye, regarded as one of the important tourism regions of the world, has shown in tourism, a gratifying picture emerges before us. On the other hand, however, we also see that although we hold great advantages over our competitors in the world, we do not make sufficient use of them. Therefore, we cannot fully reveal the tourism potential that our country actually possesses. In order to

achieve this, we need a detailed “tourism road map” and resolutely implemented policies.

Unlike many countries, Türkiye, with the cultural, historical and natural beauties it harbours, has the opportunity to develop its tourism not in a single direction but through different alternatives.

Let us look at the provinces where foreign visitors spent the most nights in 2018; we see, respectively, Antalya, İstanbul, Muğla, Aydın and İzmir.

In this ranking, we ought to be able to have one province from each of the 7 regions. When we set İstanbul aside in the present picture, the weight is in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

The distribution of visitors by purpose of arrival is as follows: 60.5 percent visit Türkiye for travel, entertainment, sporting and cultural activities, 12 percent to visit relatives and friends, 3.3 percent for business purposes, and 1.7 percent for health and medical reasons.

While aiming for an increase in the number of visitors, we also have to diversify the reasons for visiting. In other words, we need to multiply our tourism alternatives.

Here I will share with you two examples in the world that I consider important:

When we look at thermal tourism in the world, we see that countries are turning to large investments in this field and that they make long-term plans especially in this area in order to increase tourism revenue.

The first example I will give is the city of Beppu in the south of Japan. Situated in a volcanic region and attracting the interest of tourists with its hot springs and geysers, the city is known as one of the most important thermal regions of the world. This small city with a population of approximately 125 thousand hosts an average of 12 million visitors a year; a tremendous success.

Iceland too has written a success story in the thermal field. The country hosts tourists numbering approximately 10 times its population for thermal purposes.

Another example is Spain's Donostia, known as the city of San Sebastian. Again, we are speaking of a city with a population of approximately 200 thousand. Yet San Sebastian is today referred to as one of the gastronomy centres of the world. This small city, which also hosts the international gastronomy summit, welcomes millions of tourists every year.

When we consider that Anatolia possesses a 14-thousand-year-old culinary culture and think of the thermal resources in our lands, we clearly see the tourism potential that Türkiye carries even in these two fields alone.

Proceeding from these two examples, we too must now create “brand cities” in certain fields. By applying different promotion strategies, we must make very good use of the values specific to the regions and of our cultural heritage, and develop special practices and promotional methods accordingly.

Unlike other countries, our country is full of the richness of the Anatolian lands in many different fields such as thermal springs, culture, nature, health and gastronomy. We must now make the best possible use of this and place our country among the top ranks in the world tourism league. Today we are in one of our cities that best reflects the Anatolian richness we speak of, in Kastamonu, which was the Cultural Capital of the Turkic World in 2018. With its wonderful nature and its cultural and spiritual values, Kastamonu is a region suitable for tourism in all four seasons. Therefore, this place should be one of the cities in which tourism will have the largest share within the city economy. When we look at the present situation, we see a tourism activity that is open to development but that remains below its potential. We will raise this together.

Look, esteemed guests; the addressees of tourism are not only the owners of touristic facilities or the units of the state concerned with this field. Tourism is a field that can emerge and sustain its existence only through a holistic approach. It is a structure in which the residents of the region, tradespeople and local administrations above all, together with effective civil society organizations, business people and visitors, complement one another. Therefore, when we speak of a tourism drive or of the development of cities based mainly on tourism, we must also point to the development of all the elements that make up this structure.

It is important that investors put facilities and other investments into operation; but the attitude of the people of the region and of the tradespeople towards the visitors hosted in those facilities is just as important. We need to establish an understanding of tourism that is embracing, focused on solving problems, and constantly developing and offering innovation. Türkiye is already a country with its own riches in tourism; but it is essential that this richness find its counterpart in minds as well.

We are not a country that is a stranger to tourism or that has only recently become acquainted with it; however, we see the reality that, while many things in the world are undergoing change, the understanding and the habits of tourism have not remained the same either.

Therefore, while developing physical facilities such as building stock and transportation, we must on the other hand ensure intellectual development as well.

When we implement all these parts completely, we have no doubt whatsoever that we will carry our present tourism success much higher.

And when we achieve this, through tourism, one of the sectors with the greatest impact and contribution on employment, we will also have enabled our Anatolian people to sustain their lives on the lands where they were born, where they grew up and which they know.

I think this is the right moment, and I would like to address once again our investors, and above all the people of the region:

Concentrate your investments in Kastamonu; trust the region, our people and our country. Move forward with courage so that we may walk together towards our future goals

Esteemed Guests,

As you know, we have left the local elections behind. From now on our goal must be to ensure economic stability, development and social welfare.

In a 4.5-year period of governance without elections, our common aim must be the completion of public transformations, the clarification of economic reforms, the improvement of the social welfare environment by supporting employment, and our country's regaining of its growth trend. We are business people; we cannot and must not establish a direct relationship with politics or take part in political manoeuvres. Therefore, the elections, or the developments recently on our country's agenda and these days in which we witness international political manoeuvres, must not keep us from our path. Our path is the path of a Strong Türkiye.

Türkiye is no longer a country that will remain within a merely local region and be content with a limited level of growth, my dear friends.

For our Türkiye, whose goal is to be among the top 10 economies in the world, to continue walking towards this aim with determined steps, it is now time for all of us, and above all for us the representatives of the business world, to put our shoulders to the wheel.

As MÜSİAD, we are working with all our might so that Türkiye may reach the success it targets in the world arena and make it sustainable.

By acting together with our friends whose cause is Türkiye, we want to bring our country to this success in the shortest possible time.

As MÜSİAD, we entered a process of self-renewal in May and gave it the name “Renewal”.

In the words of Mevlana, whose lines shed light on our path;

“However many words there may be, they belong to yesterday

Now it is necessary to say new things”.

Without forgetting our yesterday; remaining loyal to our history and our values, we will walk towards the new and towards tomorrow. Preserving in our hearts and in our minds the words spoken yesterday, and drawing nourishment from them, we will say new things.

Esteemed Guests,

MÜSİAD has command of knowledge, of field information and, of course, of the feedback coming from the capillary vessels of the economy. For this reason, the new period is a movement of renewal formed along the axis of MÜSİAD's production of knowledge and ideas, that is, its production of value.

With its field presence on a local and global scale, its sectoral competence, its number of members and richness of profile, its broad sphere of influence, and its projects and activities reaching every segment of the social structure, MÜSİAD will be in the service of its nation and its state.

All our effort is directed towards our Türkiye taking its place among the countries that determine their own future position and have a say in the world.

We will work hard. We will work for our gains. For our civilization, for our values, for our children and our generations, we will work more than ever. We will succeed all together; Together!

Esteemed Guests,

As I complete my words, I thank everyone who contributed to this beautiful organization, and I greet you all with respect and affection.

Abdurrahman Kaan

President of MÜSİAD