Turkey Pushes For A Stronger Relationship With Nigeria
L-R: Omer F. Dengiz President of BODER the Hotel Association of Bodrum; Ahmet Aras the Mayor of Bodrum; Cecile Mambo Doumbe of CMD Tours; Ozge Gunay Cetinkaya of Kartaca Turizm and Ambassador Ikechi Uko at a meeting with the Mayor of Bodrum Belediye, held recently at his office.
In an effort to develop a stronger relationship with Africa and Nigeria, the Mayor of the city of Bodrum, Ahmet Aras hosted the Nigerian lead team for exploratory meetings led by Abuja based tour operator Cecile Doumbe of CMD Tours.
Other stakeholders hosted include Ambassador Ikechi Uko, a travel expert and Adebayo Ajayi the Travel Sultan of Abay Tours in other to take advantage of the special relationship with Nigeria to drive its tourism.
Recall, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayap Erdogan recently visited Nigeria and invited President Buhari to Turkey for the Turkey African Conference in December as part of Turkey’s effort to develop a stronger relationship with Africa and Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the exploratory team who were invited by Skywings Istanbul were hosted to a city tour of Istanbul the city of two continents visiting the European and the Asian sides of Istanbul with stops at the world-famous Hagia Sophia of Constantinople.
The Mayor of Bodrum said the country has a lot of wonderful destinations for Nigerian travellers who wish to visit the Bodrum.
“Turkey has everything the Nigerian traveller wants. We have amazing shopping of top quality materials, we have wonderful destinations of which Bodrum is the best. The historical legends of Turkey are unparalleled for both Christians and Moslems. Anything you want we have more.
“We want you to come and enjoy our Mediterranean culture within Asia. Bodrum is home to many ancient civilizations of Greece and the Island of Rhodes.
According to the Mayor, he said the country has the largest underwater museum in the world. Also, AirBnB started from Bodrum over 50 years ago. We had no hotels then and we gave our houses for bed and breakfast. But today we have the most luxurious vacations in Europe, he stressed.
“I will be coming to Nigeria to market Bodrum and I invite Nigerians to the Mediterranean Tourism Expo in Bodrum taking place in October.”
Also, at a meeting with the Bodrum Hoteliers Association, President Omer F. Dengiz told them that Bodrum has a Population of One hundred and thirty thousand Citizens (130,000) but receives over 1.3 million tourists every year mainly from Britain and Germany.
He further stressed that Bodrum has over 1000 hotels with about 150,000 rooms and more than 300,000 beds of cost between $50 to $500. Furthermore, there are boutique hotels and luxury collections. Bodrum has been described as unique, chic and special by tourists who troop there from April to October every year.
Meanwhile, after the facility visits and city tour of Bodrum which included visits to the castle and the museum of Halicarnassus a former ancient wonder of the world the team departed for Antalya. Antalya is the town where Paul the Apostle started his missionary journey in the Bible. Stopovers at Cappadocia completed the tour. The team from Turkey is expected in Nigeria for a series of roadshows to introduce Turkey to Nigerian tour operators and professionals. A series of fam trips are also planned to Turkey in the year.
The Mayor of Bodrum presented a book on Ataturk the founder of modern Turkey to the Nigerians.
In her response, Team Leader Ms Doumbe told them that Nigerians are great travellers and are looking for new destinations and Turkey is perfect. She introduced the team as experts to deliver the mandate desired by the Mayor.`
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