Monday, October 15, 2007
KONYA - Anatolia News Agency

Promotional activities and events held in Konya during 2007 that has been declared the year of Rumi by UNESCO has begun bearing fruit. Konya Tourism Platform Chairman Bekir Şahiner said an event that had been organized the previous week within the scope of the 800th birth anniversary of Rumi received great interest. He said the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB), Konya Province Culture and Tourism Directorate and Konya Greater Municipality also made use of the Year of Rumi abroad, and added that they did their best to contribute to those activities, the Anatolia news agency reported.Şahiner said Konya's tourism potential had once again been shown thanks to the activities held for the year of Rumi. “Rumi is a value recognized all over the world. It is understood better with each passing day and this increases the number of tourists visiting Konya,” he added.

Battle to be rid of the city's negative image

Noting that tourism was a long-term investment and results of current efforts would be seen over the next few years, Şahiner said, “Efforts of a few institutes are insufficient to make full use of Konya's tourism potential. Everyone living in Konya should do their best. Rumi is not the only value of the city. There is the 9,000-year-old Çatalhöyük and other old settlements, and there are many historic artifacts from the Ottoman and Seljuk periods. As tourism professionals of Konya, our biggest problem is the negative image of the city. Some of our guests in the hotels ask if their clothing will receive reaction. After visiting the city they say that Konya is not different from Istanbul, all they have heard about the city was wrong.” Şahiner said Konya should overcome this problem of image, adding “1.5 million people visited the Mevlana (Rumi) Museum last year. We estimate that the number of visitors will increase to three million thanks to the year of Rumi. Domestic tourists visit Konya mostly because they are interested in Rumi and historic artifacts. If we can remove the wrong image of Konya in most people's mind, the number of tourists will increase two-fold.”

Laser show in the sky Şahiner said their platform had prepared a comprehensive tourism project in 12 different points to increase the tourism potential of the region, and delivered it to relevant institutes. He said, “our project includes many proposals to revive tourism. Among them is to change the location of movable historic artifacts including the Konya Archaeology Museum, which is Turkey's second largest museum after the Istanbul Archaeology Museum but is almost not known because of its location. We always see the advantage of promotion. That is why we also plan to have a permanent laser show in the sky, organize activities on a 42-storey tower and so on.” Konya Dedeman Hotel General Manager Emrullah Akçakaya said the most important days during the year of Rumi for hotels will be from Dec. 1 to 17 during which ceremonies will be held to commemorate Rumi. He said interest in Konya had increased in 2007 due to the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth. “This year Konya was promoted very well in Turkey and abroad. We will see the advantages of these promotions not only this year but also in the coming years,” he added.