The USA, Germany, France, Poland, Russia and Kuwait are among the countries that visited Safranbolu the most in the first 10 months of 2022.
While the Safranbolu district of Karabük, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, hosted tourists from the Far East before the pandemic, the historical city has become a favorite of the USA and Europeans in recent years.
The historical district of Safranbolu, which resembles an open-air museum with its inns, baths, mansions, fountains, mosques and bridges from the Ottoman period, is on its way to becoming a favorite of local and foreign tourists.
Photo: Erkan Tabakoğlu
The USA, Germany, France, Poland, Russia and Kuwait are at the top of the countries that visited Safranbolu, which was the city most preferred by Far Eastern tourists before the pandemic, in the first 10 months of 2022.
Safranbolu Mayor Elif Köse, in a statement to the İhlas News Agency (İHA) reporter, said, “We went through a long pandemic process. Cities like us that earn their living from tourism have been adversely affected by this situation. One of the reasons why they were adversely affected was the arrival of tourists from the Far East to this region. The beginning of this pandemic started in the Far East, that is, in China. Naturally, the Far East tourists, who have the potential of this place, started not to come. However, our work was to ensure that European tourists, who especially value cities that are developed in terms of cultural tourism, come to our city rather than being dependent on tourists from only one country or region. Our work has always been in this direction,” he said.
Photo: Erkan Tabakoğlu
Pointing out that they have been working with the Safranbolu Tourism Operators Association for the last few years, Köse said, “Together, we organize trips to important tourism centers in Turkey that attract tourists from Europe. We are holding meetings with both the agencies in the tourism sector and local administrations on the direction we need to work. In our city, a tourism workshop was held together with the District Governor's Office. Our tradesmen from different business lines in the tourism sector participated here. With the cooperation with the university, a certain route was drawn regarding Safranbolu. At the same time, we started to work on increasing the quality of the service in the city by implementing the purple flag certificate program. This is a program that encourages our tradesmen and also informs them about the work they do.”
Photo: Erkan Tabakoğlu
Noting that the works are continuing, Köse stated that these efforts have started to pay off and said: “French tourists will start to arrive as of March. We started to host tourists from America and Russia. In the tourism season of 2023, we will begin to experience this heavily. This is good news for our city. Because the massive tourist arrivals and leaving nothing to the city was doing nothing but harming this city. When we say qualified, which we have been trying to explain from the beginning, we target tourists who have high purchasing power, understand cultural tourism, and do not go to the city for a day. Together with them, to increase the number of accommodation days and to provide more economic return to the city by selling high value-added products to tourists. I think we accomplished that. Our shopkeepers and Safranbolu will see the results of this more clearly in 2023.”
Photos: Erkan Tabakoğlu