Governor Toprak: We Must İntroduce Diyarbakır To The World

Governor Toprak: We must introduce Diyarbakır to the world Diyarbakır Tourism Platform, which was founded to promote tourism in Diyarbakir, held its second meeting under the chairmanship of Mustafa Toprak, Chairman of the Board of Director and The Governor of Diyarbakır, in the Headquarters of Karacadağ Development Agency. The President of Dicle University Prof. Ayşegül Jale Saraç, The Deputy Governor of Diyarbakır Mustafa Can, The Secretary General of Karacadağ Development Agency Dr. İlhan Karakoyun, The Governor of the district of Sur Mustafa Kılıç, The Governor of the district of Eğil Murat Büyükköse, The Governor of the district of Dicle Çağlayan Kaya, The District Director of Foundations Metin Evsen, The Metropolitan Municipality Department of Culture and Tourism Muharram Cebe, NGOs, public and private sector representatives of the platform participated in the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was composed of discussions on revealing and using cultural and tourism potential of Diyarbakır, what should be done in order to develop a sustainable tourism approach, the problems of entrepreneurs and investors in tourism sector, Diyarbakır's Tourism Strategy Action Plan 2011-2016, Travel Turkey Izmir 2011 and preparations for EMITT 2012 fairs. Governor Toprak: We should carry our assets to the future while conserving. In his speech, Governor of Diyarbakir Mustafa Toprak emphasized that “Although sightseeing some places is in the general definition of tourism, especially for Diyarbakır it means much more than this. Diyarbakir, besides being a touristic city with sightseeing landmarks, is a city which has unique characteristics with its values. Therefore, it needs to utilize cultural and tourism assets of Diyarbakır and promote the tourism infrastructure of Diyarbakır to the world. Of course while doing this promotion, the assets should be carried to the future in a conserved way.” Karakoyun: We do not benefit from utilizing tourism potential of Diyarbakır to the fullest. İlhan Karakoyun (PhD), Secretary General of Karacadağ Development Agency said “Diyarbakir has a great potential in terms of culture and tourism but it is not used enough. The clearest proof of this fact is provinces of Mardin, Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman are ahead of Diyarbakır in terms of tourism. As actors in this region, we need to be conscious of this potential and reveal and use it in a more effective way. If we achieve this, by creating employment in short-term, we would have found solution to the unemployment which is one of the most important problems of our region.” “In order to develop tourism sector, works of Governorship, Municipality or other relevant institutions themselves are not enough. Not only public institutions, but all institutions, ranging from private sector to NGOs, have to take responsibility. In recent years, tourism had attracted great attention and there are significant investments in the region. But all these works need coordination, and they should be implemented in accordance with a strategy.” in his speech.