Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Zeydan Karalar said, “Our Adana has been nominated for the second time to enter the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the gastronomy category. We believe we will succeed this year.”
Following the applications made after Zeydan Karalar became the Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Adana once again had a chance to enter the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of gastronomy. Providing information about the process and the point reached, Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Zeydan Karalar stated that Adana was included in the candidate list to enter the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of gastronomy.
WE WORKED TOGETHER IN THE METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY
Referring to the richness and diversity of values of Adana, Mayor Zeydan Karalar continued as follows: “Adana is a city with very important values and richness. Adana is a city of trade, agriculture, industry, history, art but also the most delicious foods of the world are here. However, we have not been able to be included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of gastronomy until today. The Metropolitan Municipality prepares the file under the responsibility of the Metropolitan Municipality but of course it works with many institutions and organizations of the city to create and present a stronger file. We were included in the national list twice, we went to Paris once, we could not go to Paris once. Now, with the important contributions of our esteemed Governor, we have prepared a special file together with all our other stakeholders. Our file was voted on last Friday, it was accepted for Paris on Monday and Adana was included in the candidate list in the field of gastronomy in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. This is an important event in terms of being included in UNESCO’s gastronomy list and becoming a gastronomy city. We are making great efforts to make Adana a tourism city. We think that this can be achieved with gastronomy, which is now one of the important tourism trends in the world. Adana is of course a wonderful city with its history, art and natural beauties, but in addition to these, it is a city that can attract a significant number of tourists with its gastronomy. We want Hatay, Gaziantep and Adana to be a triple gastronomy destination.”
WHEN WE ENTER THE UNESCO LIST, WE WILL ATTRACT MORE TOURISTS
Providing information about the process after the nomination, President Zeydan Karalar said: “The next stage will be voting in Paris. After we are successful in this, I hope we will be included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the gastronomy branch. In this way, we will attract several times more tourists to Adana than the current number.”
WE ARE MAKING AN INTRODUCTION THAT HAS NEVER BEEN MADE BEFORE
Mayor Zeydan Karalar concluded his words as follows: “When we started working at Seyhan Municipality, there were almost no local tourists, but today it is close to 1 million. The number of foreign tourists was 60-65 thousand, now it has exceeded 300 thousand. If it were not for the pandemic and earthquakes, these numbers would probably double. Major organizations such as the Orange Blossom Carnival, Flavor Festival, International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival, Turnip and Kebab Festival have an impact on the increase in the number of tourists coming to Adana. Our efforts to promote the beauties of Adana after our mayoralty have also been effective. Your brother has done all the PR work that has not been done before, and we will continue to do so. When it comes to Adana, the rest is just details.”
