The Türkiye Consultation Meeting titled the Tourism Summit from Trabzon to the World, held under the coordination of the Tourism Sector Board of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) and hosted by the MÜSİAD Trabzon Branch, took place with the participation of Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı, Governor of Trabzon Aziz Yıldırım, Trabzon Metropolitan Mayor Ahmet Metin Genç and MÜSİAD Trabzon Branch President Mesut İskenderoğlu.

The Türkiye Consultation Meeting with the main theme ‘Tourism Summit from Trabzon to the World’, organized by the MÜSİAD Tourism Sector Board and hosted by the MÜSİAD Trabzon Branch, has been completed. Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu and MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı attended the closing ceremony of the summit and workshop, which lasted two days. Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Uraloğlu said that Türkiye is one of the world's tourism paradises in terms of its tourism opportunities. Pointing out that ürkiye is also a privileged country in terms of possessing an ancient history dating back thousands of years, turquoise blue seas, clean beaches, green forests, snowy mountains, plateaus and a unique Turkish cuisine, Uraloğlu said, "All of the features I have listed are present in our Trabzon as well. With its Black Sea, its mist-capped mountains, its lush green forests, its natural wonder plateaus and its people, Trabzon is the miniature of Türkiye, its essence." Stating that this is not the success of the tourism sector alone, Minister Uraloğlu noted the following:

"This success is at the same time a manifestation of our security policies and our transport investments. If touristic activities can be carried out in the most remote corners of our country, if we can reach each one of our provinces from east to west safely and comfortably, this is thanks to the stable governance of our 22 years of AK Party rule. There is no need to be modest here. Just as we have touched upon many fields such as industry, logistics, communications, agriculture, culture, art and sport, our ministry also has great effort in tourism reaching this point."

Stating that in the last 22 years, under the leadership of President Erdoğan, 100 years' worth of work has been done in order to raise the potential of Türkiye's advantageous geographical position to the highest level, Uraloğlu continued his remarks as follows:

"We have made USD 275 billion of investment in our transport and communications infrastructure. This paradise country has such a position that with a flight time of only 4 hours we can reach approximately 1.5 billion people on the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, and 67 countries in this geography with a trade volume of USD 8.6 trillion. We are right at their centre. We are one of the world's fastest developing countries in aviation. Look, from our 57 active airports we operate flights to 346 points in 130 countries. In 2023 we raised our number of passengers travelling on domestic and international lines, which was approximately 34.5 million in 2002, praise be to God, to over 214 million."

“MÜSİAD Will Do Its Utmost”

Speaking at the ceremony, President Asmalı, for his part, expressed that MÜSİAD attaches considerable importance to tourism work both specifically for Trabzon and for Türkiye, and that its work in this direction is continuing.

Also providing information about the rise of the tourism sector, Asmalı noted the following:

“Today we are actually talking about the tourism activity in Trabzon, but at the same time we are talking about what we can do to develop our country's tourism diversity. How should we act in order to increase the tourism potential, what should we add to the existing investments — we analyse these too and assess them all together. Although certain leading touristic cities of ours such as İstanbul and Antalya come to the fore, every city of Türkiye holds a distinct cultural beauty and tourism potential within it. Each one of our 18 provinces has natural, historical and cultural riches with touristic features. One of our country's greatest advantages is that it possesses a geography and a historical richness extremely suitable for a 12-month tourism concept. The important matter is how we will present this richness and how we will turn it into tourism investment. God willing, with the efforts of you who contribute to the tourism sector as well, we will accelerate the rise of tourism in our country in the coming days. We too, as MÜSİAD, are showing every effort in this regard, and I would like to state that we are ready to do our part in the coming period as well.

Our country, surrounded by seas on 3 sides, with its magnificent geography and its historical and natural beauties, is virtually a tourism paradise. It has always been at the forefront with its climate in which 4 seasons are experienced at the same time, its capacity to host dozens of different types of tourism, and its smiling and hospitable people.

In these respects Türkiye is like a treasure waiting to be discovered. In our country dozens of types of tourism are conducted together, from nature tourism to winter sports, from health tourism to gastronomy, from culture to congress and meeting tourism.

As for us, with tourism investments we are striving to increase room and bed capacities and to develop and increase this further with each passing year with our trained service sector people.

Despite the disaster of the century that we experienced in 2023, praise be to God, we left behind an extremely productive year in terms of tourism.

We closed the end of the year with a visitor number close to 57 million. This figure is a new record for our country in terms of tourism. This year, God willing, we aim to raise the number of visitors to 60-65 million. When we consider Trabzon province specifically, it has recorded an important increase in tourism in recent years.”

The 6-Article Workshop Result Was Announced

MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı also announced the concluding articles of the workshop that took place as a result of the panels held on the first and second days of the summit. Speaking of high-level tourism spread over the year rather than particular seasonal tourism, Asmalı said, “Yesterday, again in this hall, we held the workshop with the participation of more than 100 participants consisting of people from the public sector, academics, representatives of civil society organizations, and businessmen and professors operating in the tourism sector. As a result of this, we obtained an output data set.”

The concluding articles announced after the workshop are as follows:

1. Sustainable tourism policy: It is important to develop sustainable tourism policies that will protect the natural and cultural heritage of the Black Sea. Eco-tourism activities should be encouraged, and by carrying out environmental impact assessments it should be ensured that tourism does not harm nature.

2. Development of infrastructure: In order to improve the region's tourism infrastructure, modernization should be carried out in local services such as transport and accommodation. Developing transport networks especially in rural and mountainous areas can enable tourists to have a more accessible experience.

3. Bringing cultural heritage to the fore: The natural and cultural heritage of the Black Sea should be brought to the fore effectively in order to attract more tourists. Cultural elements such as local festivals, art shows and gastronomy events should be offered to tourism.

4. Digital Marketing Strategies: digital marketing and social media strategies should be made use of in order to keep the region on the national and international arena. Potential visitors should be reached with attractive and impressive content.

5. Training Programs: Through the training of the local people who will work in the tourism sector, we can raise tourist satisfaction by increasing service quality. Training programs should be organized.

6. Multilingual support: Multilingual support should be offered for foreigners who will visit the Black Sea region. This will enable these tourists to explore the region better and to establish a connection with local cultures,” he said.

The "Tourism Summit from Trabzon to the World", at which Governor of Trabzon Aziz Yıldırım, Trabzon Metropolitan Mayor Ahmet Metin Genç, MÜSİAD Tourism Sector Board Chairman Murat Kundak and MÜSİAD Trabzon Branch President Mesut İskenderoğlu also delivered speeches, came to an end with a family photograph.