Country's devastating earthquake heavily impacts tourism gastronomy

The earthquake also hit gastronomy tourism in 11 provinces that stand out with their culinary diversity, especially in Gaziantep and Hatay.

Omer Kartin, Head of Gastronomy Tourism of TÜRSAB (Association of Turkish Travel Agents), said that “Gaziantep, Hatay, and Afyon have been registered by UNESCO. The earthquake hit 80 percent of the gastronomy. There were 300,000 foreigners and 2-3 million people coming from the country within the scope of GAP tours annually. We lost this place,” he said.

Gastronomy tourism has increased its popularity in Turkiye in recent years. In fact, special tours were organized all over Turkiye, especially in Gaziantep, Hatay, and Afyon, which stand out in gastronomy. However, the earthquake struck gastronomy tourism, which attracted great interest from both domestic and foreign tourists. Commenting on the subject to Yeni Şafak, TÜRSAB 24th Term Gastronomy Tourism Specialization President Omer Kartin said, “We think that it is a minimum of 3 months to recover the tourism in the region. If we recover quickly and container houses are built, we can reintroduce the region by putting safe hotels into service." Kartin emphasized that they are working on a road map as tourism stakeholders and added that all layers of society should be involved in this business.

While expecting to reach the upper level in 2023, we are caught in an earthquake

Stating that all tourism activities have stopped at the moment, Kartin said that gastronomy tourism was also negatively affected in the earthquake regions, especially in Antakya. Expressing that the damage assessment work from restaurants to the tour guide has not been completed yet, Kartin said: “While we were expecting to reach a very high level in terms of gastronomy in 2023, we were caught in an earthquake. It is necessary to transform the region affected by the earthquake into a city of gastronomy, culture, and tourism that all of Turkiye will benefit from in the medium term. Especially in Hatay, we are meeting with professors from the university so that we can prepare these projects as soon as possible.”

A total of 80 percent of gastronomy is finished

Emphasizing that the center of the city should be used as a cultural and tourism area instead of rebuilding the destroyed places in Antakya, Omer Kartin said, “As an industry, we have two months of free time ahead of us. We sit and think, we hold meetings." Emphasizing that the tourism sector must be involved in the restructuring of the region, Omer Kartin pointed out that after the accommodation needs of the people are completed, container hotels are among the options as well as solid hotels that have undergone strict inspection.

"We need to correct the perception first," Kartin said, adding that "we have three UNESCO-registered provinces Gaziantep, Hatay, and Afyon in Turkiye. The neighbors of these cities also have a very important place in terms of gastronomy. The earthquake hit 80 percent of the gastronomy.”

All sections of the industry were shook

Ali said that the most important cities where they took their guests from all over the world outside of Istanbul were adversely affected by the earthquake. Kartin said,“We lost our power as gastronomy tourism. If we do not heal this wound quickly, we will have lost both domestic and foreign tourism as gastronomy tourism professionals in 2023. About 300,000 foreign tourists came annually. But within the scope of GAP tours, 2-3 million people were visiting the region annually. Not only the region but the economy of the people who eat there will be shaken. As a matter of fact, the companies that tour there from Istanbul and the guides working there were also adversely affected.”

Tours from Russia to Antalya canceled

Ömer Kartin stated that all the work in the tourism sector has stopped at the moment and said, "Even the people who will go abroad to cruise ships, let alone the tours sold from that region, have lost their morale."

Emphasizing the need to work on the image of Turkiye, Kartin said, "If we don't make the transformation, this psychological ruin will be both in our society and it will create prejudice for those who will come here from abroad. Tours from Russia to Antalya were interrupted. This year, our country desperately needs foreign currency. The sector that will provide this foreign exchange to the country is tourism. Secondly, there are tour guides, cooks, restaurant owners, and chefs that we, unfortunately, lost from these regions. We don't know how many of them survive. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to assess the damage yet. We will assess the damage as soon as possible and develop the region together. It is necessary to put tourism at the forefront of reviving Antakya, one of the three largest cities in the world.”