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BY A CORRESPONDENT
March 15, 2007: The Culture and Tourism Ministry of
Turkey has opened culture and tourism offices in five
countries to project and promote the country more
effectively abroad.
Professor Mustafa İsen, Undersecretary of the Culture
and Tourism Ministry, says Turkey has had two basic
strategies relating to tourism – which the country calls
‘Near Surroundings Presentation’ and ‘Far Surroundings
Presentation.’
Professor İsen says Turkey intends to organise more
active events in near and far surroundings. Four new
offices had been opened, as ordered by the Turkish
Cabinet.
“Such an office is being established in Bulgaria, which
has increased tourism activity in recent years. The
Arabic world shows great interest in Turkey and that’s
why we have opened a culture and tourism office in
Riyadh. We will also open offices in India, which is a
developing country, and in its neighbour, Pakistan,”
İsen said.
Having talked during his trip to India to a group of
Indian film producers, who had conducted some research
in Istanbul and some Turkish cities, İsen said: “Indian
film producers want to shoot some episodes in Turkey for
a television series, which is now broadcast in India and
the world and has great potential in Turkey. One of the
producers said 400 million people watch the TV series in
India. Accordingly, scenes from Turkey in these TV
series will make our country very attractive.”
Within the ‘Far Surroundings Presentation’ strategy, the
Islamabad Culture and Tourism office was opened in
Pakistan to improve historical and cultural relations
with the country.
In Bulgaria, which ranked fourth among the countries
sending the highest number of tourists to Turkey in
2006, the Sophia Culture and Tourism office was opened.
It is expected that the number of Bulgarian tourists
visiting Turkey will go up thanks to the activities of
the office.
Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry opened the Riyadh
Culture and Tourism office in Saudi Arabia within the
‘Near Surroundings Presentation’ strategy.
Another culture and tourism office has been opened in
Johannesburg (South Africa), a city with one of the 20
largest economies in the world and one-third of whose
population regularly travels globally.
With the newly opened offices, the Culture and Tourism
Ministry now has 40 tourism offices in 37 countries
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