MAYOR ÜNLÜCE ON TOURISM OF ESKİŞEHİR AT EMITT FAIR

Eskişehir Metropolitan Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce participated as a speaker at the Eastern Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Fair (EMITT), one of the 5 largest tourism fairs in the world. Explaining the tourism potential of Eskişehir and the projects implemented, Mayor Ünlüce said, “We are creating a ‘tourism portal’ in our city by keeping up with the digitalization required by our age. This portal will work in an integrated manner with our smart urbanization applications.”

EMITT, one of the 5 largest tourism fairs in the world, opened its doors in Istanbul. Istanbul Governor Davut Gül, Union of Municipalities of Türkiye and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce attended the opening.

After the opening ceremony, Mayor Ünlüce toured the fairground and then attended the panel “Brave Steps for Tourism: Municipalities Initiating Transformation” panel as a speaker. The panel was moderated by Dr. Şengül Altan Arslan, Deputy Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye, and in addition to Mayor Ünlüce, Ahmet Öküzcüoğlu, Mayor of Alaşehir, Manisa and Şükrü Sargın, Mayor of Zile, Tokat took part as speakers.

Mayor Ünlüce said that they are realizing many projects to promote Eskişehir’s tourism potential to Türkiye and the World. “We are creating a 'tourism portal' in our city by keeping up with the digitalization required by our age. This portal will work in integration with our smart urbanization applications.  Thanks to the free wifi points of our city, our tourists will have easy access to the portal. Local and foreign tourists will see the tourism potential of Eskişehir with the mobile application they download to their mobile phones. We are currently creating all the data of our application. With this innovative application, we will make Eskişehir a more accessible city. When you come to our city as a tourist, the portal will create a route for you according to how many days or how many hours you will stay. It will include taste stops, gastronomy destinations, museums, historical sites and will guide you according to the time you want to spend. We will label our local businesses so that our local tradesmen can also benefit from this mobility.  Our tourists will be able to find the answer to how to get there by tram, bus or bicycle thanks to the application showing the transportation routes. The portal will include foreign language options.”

Stating that local governments have the most important share in the development of tourism, Mayor Ünlüce said that the transformation in Eskişehir started with the former Mayor Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Büyükerşen. Stating that an important step was taken for the development of tourism in Eskişehir after the rehabilitation works carried out in Porsuk Stream, Mayor Ünlüce said, “Our Eskişehir really shines like a star in the middle of the steppe. As Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality, we have done many works one after the other. The whole city was mobilized and everyone took part in that beautiful transformation. Of course, bureaucratic obstacles are a part of the life of municipalities, but if you are really determined, there is nothing you cannot accomplish; Eskişehir is one example. The museums we opened, the City Theaters and the establishment of the Symphony Orchestra have made our city a preferred city in terms of culture and arts. I would also like to mention that we are the only municipality in Türkiye that has a Symphony Orchestra. Thanks to all these developments, we host tourists in our city not only in certain periods but for 12 months. Our neighboring provinces are always fed by the culture and art activities and tourism in Eskişehir. During the weekend, Eskişehir hosts almost twice as many citizens as its population. We welcome everyone who wants to see how beautiful our city Eskişehir is.”