Şebnem Akman Balta: "Immediate action plan is essential for our cultural heritage damaged by the earthquake."
Şebnem Akman Balta, the Vice President of the Young Businessmen Association of Turkey, who is also a tourism professional, stated that an urgent action plan should be prepared for the cultural heritage sites affected by the 6 February earthquake. Akman Balta stated that the damaged areas should be rebuilt in accordance with the original. The owner of the tourism agency Medulux Health&Travel and the Vice President of the Young Businessmen Association of Turkey Şebnem Akman Balta, pointed out that the 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş that occurred on February 6 damaged the cultural heritage sites and historical monuments in the region and said that urgent action should be taken on the issue.
Akman Balta stated that it is of great importance to reconstruct the cultural areas that were damaged during the earthquakes that caused great destruction in 11 provinces and the flood disaster that followed. Şebnem Akman Balta said, “We must move on to an emergency action plan to protect the main physical cultural heritage sites in the regions or cities affected by earthquakes or floods and to rebuild them in accordance with the original. Damaged heritage items should be inventoried. All valuable historical artifacts should be transported to safe areas."
"Sister city projects can be created"
Şebnem Akman Balta pointed out that Adana, Hatay and Gaziantep, which were affected by the disaster, are among the provinces that host the most tourists in Turkey and underlined the need to support these cities. Expressing that “sister city” projects can be created for this, Akman Balta said, “We need to create sister cities of these cities and provide support with the application we call the body system. We must show the whole world that we are ready for disasters like Japan with the vision of 'security first, people first'.
"Safe country policy"
Şebnem Akman Balta, stating that there is a need to create a planning that first protects the people and then the cultural heritage, continued her words as follows: “If we examine the subject for the tourism sector, tourism is derived from the word 'tornus' in Latin and it refers to the movement of people around an axis. It has been shaped as a 'tour' in French, English and German languages and has survived to the present day. Tourism is temporary travel and accommodation where people meet their instinctive needs such as resting, changing places to explore new places, and experiencing the traditional cultures of countries. At the same time, it is the biggest source of foreign currency inflow to our country. The influence of this source is increasing day by day. We must have a plan that has taken the necessary precautions to protect our people and then our cultural heritage. We must create a mass of guests who come to our country with confidence. We should plan a risk analysis that prioritizes the ‘safe country’ policy.”
63 million tourists are expected to arrive
Stating that 63 million tourists are expected to come to Turkey in 2023, Şebnem Akman Balta said, “Long studies should be carried out on the issues I mentioned. Because when we examine the 2023 strategies, it is expected that 63 million tourists will come and an income of 75 billion dollars will be obtained. It is foreseen to reach an expenditure of approximately 1400 dollars per tourist. If we look at it in terms of health tourism, it is expected to spend between 1700 dollars and 5 thousand dollars per person.”