Adana and Beirut, the two prominent cities of East Mediterranean in industry, commerce and tourism, unite their powers. A delegation of 50 persons with representatives from the public and private sectors from Beirut came to Adana to build a bridget aiming at a high intensity cooperation especially in the field of tourism. Having participated in “Beirut – Adana Tourism Bridge Meeting”, this delegation will undersign projects that will expand the tourism volume between Adana and Beirut. Adana will expand to the Middle East with the project executed by Adana Chamber of Commerce, Adana Promotion & Development Inc. (ATAK) and Cukurova Development Agency.
Having spoken at the meeting organized with the purpose of maximizing the tourism volume between Adana and Beirut, two important cities of Mediterranean and Middle East, Atilla Menevse, the Chairman of Adana Chamber of Commerce (ATO), and Adana Promotion & Development Inc. (ATAK), pointed out that Turkey and Lebanon have great potential in the region and added “We think that there is a great tourism potential between the two cities. There are daily round trip flights, visa freedom and other opportunities as well. We are determined to take steps together by making use of these. We had several meetings in Beirut in last August and now we are pleased to host our friends from Beirut in Adana and give them the opportunity to see our potential”.
Having mentioned “the tourism initiative started for Adana will cover other countries in the region”, Menev?e continued “Our purpose is to make Adana and Beirut the most important center of the tourism movement in the Middle East. There is a significant tourism traffic between Lebanon and Turkey. Our target is to mutually develop the tourism traffic between Beiru and Adana”.
Huseyin Sozlu, the mayor of Adana Metropolitan Municipality, who participated in the meeting, pointed out that increasing the tourism volume between Adana and Beirut should be the first objective and stated “We, as Adana, have to promote all of our values. Beirut and Adana are two important cities of a culture that can be regarded as common. There is a great potential, reciprocal visits by 10 thousand people every week is not a dream. As Adana, we are ready”.
Roadmap Drawn
Fatih Akol, the Chairman of Borajet Airlines, mentioned that their roundtrip air flights between Beirut and Adana contributed to tourism. Numan Olcar, board member of the Association of Turkish Travel Agents, stressed that tourism will flourish further with the project started. Jean Abboud, the President of the Association of Travel & Tourist Agents in Lebanon, specified that they will take important steps to ensure closer cooperation with Turkey, with which they have deep historical relations.
Pierre Achkar, the President of the Tourism Federation of Lebanon, called meeting participants to make more investments to both countries and cities. Lütfi Alt?nsu, the Secretary General of Cukurova Development Agency, expressed that they will work for all kinds of support, stressing that they provide funds for the tourism projects up until now.
Ilhami Gunsel, General Manager and Board Member of ATAK (Adana Promotion & Development Inc), welcomed the Lebanese delegation in Arabic language and gave thanks to all contributors.
In this meeting, it was also pointed out that the scheduled direct flights between Adana and Beirut will be very effective in mutually improving the nature, culture, gourmet, health and shopping tourism between the two cities. Finally, leading tourism operators of Lebanon had the chance to make one to one (B2B) meetings with the agencies, hotels, hospitals, shopping centers and sector officials in Adana.
