After the earthquake disaster experienced by Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality (GBB) Culture and Tourism Department, a tourism evaluation meeting was held with the participation of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB).
After the earthquake that had a striking effect in southeast Turkey, which is called the disaster of the century, a road map was determined to revive tourism.
Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Sezer Cihan, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Erdem Güzelbey, Head of Culture and Tourism Department Oya Alpay, City Council President Samet Bayrak attended the meeting.
In her presentation, Ayşe Ertürk made statements about what is done in tourism in other countries after the earthquake, crisis and disaster management plans in tourism, analysis of tourism needs after the earthquake, recovery in tourism after the earthquake and city examples in the world.
In the tourism improvement step suggestions after the earthquake disaster in Gaziantep; 'safe hotel' concepts were discussed for the accommodation reliability of the tourists coming to the city, such as the city's infrastructure, smart cities, resilient cities. In the meeting, it was also discussed that safe accommodation arrangements should be made in tourism by communicating with travel agencies.
Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Sezer Cihan stated at the meeting that Gaziantep entered a rapid recovery process after the earthquake and said:
“When we combine the old and attractive days of culture and tourism and our name with gastronomy, we need to return to normal quickly, because life goes on. We need to recover on the scale of Gaziantep. It would be very beneficial for us to form a team with our professors in the relevant engineering field of all tourism-related structures and facilities of accommodation facilities, with the support of our municipality and the ministry, and to start working on the reliability of these structures. I think that this will contribute concretely in terms of tourism. When we looked at it, we were very impressed regionally. We detected the damages in the structures as soon as possible. We quickly started the restoration works related to what fell on Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality. We need to remove the damage caused by the earthquake. In terms of making the city a safe city, we will also carry out extra examinations in buildings that are at risk of earthquakes.”