Integrated Tourism Development Opportunities in Cappadocia, Turkey

Ahmet Bahadir Ozsut, Taner Ozkurtoglu, HANTEK Inc partners

 

 

 

 

Although Turkey has achieved a significant level of performance in tourism over the last twenty years, it  has yet to initiate and accomplish a series of significant measures towards new and emerging worldwide trends in tourism, pointing towards alternatives to beach tourism. Cappadocia will clearly be one of the prospective beneficiaries at the earlier stages of implementation of this policy due to its relatively easily deployable and richly diverse assets. The Cappadocia region of Turkey is justifiably the silicon valley of heritage tourism. Even with its current deficiencies, it is one of the most promising sites for tourism development anywhere in the world. Cappadocia has unequalled potentialities for qualifying as a major destination in tourism. This great wealth of potentialities, however, has not been properly utilised by any satisfactory standard until now. A significant precondition to improve this situation is to enable existing facilities with around 8,000-10,000 bed capacity to create extended demand from and provide high quality accommodation for weekly tours, which further entails the accomplishment of diversifying services at a satisfactorily high level. Any integrated investment project in this locality must accommodate various kinds of commercial institutionalisation, and multiple-phased development capabilities suitable for heritage and culture tourism, eco-tourism, theme parks, nature sports tourism, congress, festival & exhibition tourism, golf tourism, 4&5-star hotels, boutique hotels, etc. On the strength of its corporate interest and as a positive indication of trust it has in the region, HANTEK Inc is currently seeking local and international prospective investors and strategic partners for defining and drafting the initial-phase an integrated investment project. In this regard, partnering with local and international prospective investors and strategic consulting partners, and commensurate reorganisation, in very broad terms, should be expected to lead to an umbrella organisation for bringing together (a) investors, (b) business development consultants, and (c) project development and management consultants.

 

   

 

Tourism in TurkeyTurkey has achieved a significant level of performance in tourism over the last twenty years. While 1,625,000 visitors generated 411 million USD of income in 1983, the figures for 2004 were 17,517,000 visitors and 12.125 million USD.While this substantial increase in performance is quite noteworthy, Turkey has yet to initiate and accomplish a series of significant measures over a considerable period for readjustment to new and emerging worldwide trends in tourism. These trends are increasingly pointing towards alternatives to beach tourism (which currently makes up 65% of demand in Turkish tourism), such as culture and heritage tourism, nature tourism, health tourism, and many others. Although it is widely acknowledged that Anatolia (Asia Minor) is one of the richest corners of the world with regard to natural and cultural heritage, this wealth has not been deployed at a satisfactorily high level in the service of tourism. Planners have been aware of the current saturation levels attained in popular coastal holiday resorts populating a fairly limited number of destinations, mostly in Antalya, Mugla, Aydin and Izmir, and have come to the conclusion that insisting on implementing current policies and thereby further overloading of these destinations would have severely adverse effects with regard to growth and sustainability in tourism. In particular, sustainability in tourism is directly related to diversification of services.  Diversification, in this sense, serves to generate new demand in many diverse fields of interest, and equally importantly, facilitates levelling demand throughout the year and thus can effectively absorb the undesirable asymmetric nature of seasonality. The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) maintains that the volume of world tourism will grow by 4% annually, and that the share of “sun-sea tourism” will gradually decrease to be replaced by other categories such as culture tourism, eco-tourism, health tourism, etc. Even if Turkish tourism succeeds in attracting 30 million annual visitors in the next decade, Turkey will still be considerably behind the performance levels of major destination countries in Europe (for example, in 2002, 40 million tourists visited Italy, 52 million visited Spain, 77 million visited France). There are, nevertheless, sufficient indications for justifying the expectation of a steep rise in the rate of development in Turkish tourism in comparison with its current standing. This rate will be even higher in new and diversified alternative service fields than that for coastal resort tourism. Because, aided further by the recent developments in the regulatory framework, Turkey has finally started to reassess, reorient and revise its tourism policies and to initiate new policies of encouraging diversification.

 

 

 

 

CappadociaCappadocia will clearly be one of the prospective beneficiaries at the earlier stages of implementation of this policy due to its relatively easily deployable and richly diverse assets.

 

 

 

 

Currently, Cappadocia is not formally shortlisted as a region for encouragement of diversification. However, there are strong indications that this situation will change quite soon. Indeed, thanks to its spectacular natural expanses of scenery and unique artifacts of historic heritage, Cappadocia has unequalled potentialities for qualifying as a major destination in tourism. Several reasons stand out why Cappadocia even with its current deficiencies is one of the most promising sites for tourism development anywhere in the world:

  • Cappadocia is truly unique in the world.
  • Cappadocia is on the UNESCO shortlist for regions of world heritage.
  • Cappadocia has the basic, though elemental, infrastructure deemed necessary for tourism.
  • Existing facilities and capabilities for transportation by air and by land are sufficiently developed for serving any high-capacity destination point.
  • Cappadocia is literally an open air museum for ancient and prehistoric cultures who populated the region for more than five millennia.
  • Cappadocia is on the historic Silk Road.

 

 

 

 

This great wealth of potentialities, however, has not been properly utilised by any satisfactory standard until now. One of the key arguments for this most unfortunate consequence is that the region has so far failed to stand out as an independent tourism destination. Tourists visit the region, on the average, for two days, mostly while they attend multiple-destination package tours extending into several other regions as well. A short visit for two days to Cappadocia, however, is barely sufficient to have a glimpse of the scenery.

 

 

 

 

A closer look into Cappadocia’s failure to qualify as an independent tourism destination points to a number of reasons:

  1. A severe lack of appreciating the value of diversification as reflected in ineffectual national policies is obviously a major cause for this outcome.
  2. The fact that local and international investors and operators have usually been in favour of the relatively less trouble-free sun-and-sea tourism is yet another major reason for the apparent inadequacies in promoting regional touristic assets.
  3. The capacity created with 12,500 rated and licensed beds in the region is somewhat low for a truly independent tourism destination.
  4. The situation is aggravated by insufficiencies in the physical and qualitative characteristics of the existing facilities as well as scarce service capabilities as follows:
  • The present-day facilities are capable of offering basic accommodation and catering only; they are hardly well-equipped to create and sustain an authentic atmosphere for visitors to actively interact and “have a good time” by participating in specialised events and activities catering for many diverse fields of interest.
  • There is practically no service on offer for entertaining children. Also, with the exception of countryside excursions and cultural sightseeing tours, opportunities are either unavailable or extremely limited for MICE (corporate meetings and training sessions, conference and incentives), recreational tourism (including golf and other sports), health tourism, and the like.
  • The architectural features of practically all 3, 4 and 5-star hotel buildings do not conform in any aesthetic sense with the scenic qualities of the environment. The phenomenal spell of the reclusive aura stimulating the imaginations of the visitors is easily dispersed when they return from their excursions to face such mediocrities. Although this problem is currently of lesser importance, it might pose as an insurmountable deficiency if this practice is continued throughout the region.

For all such reasons as described above, the operation of the Cappadocia International Airport as a profitable enterprise has not been actualised. A significant precondition to improve this situation is to enable existing facilities with around 8,000-10,000 bed capacity to create extended demand from and provide high quality accommodation for weekly tours, which further entails the accomplishment of diversifying services at a satisfactorily high level.

 

   

 

 

Integrated investment possibilitiesEven from the brief introduction above, it is clear that the Cappadocia region of Turkey is justifiably the silicon valley of heritage tourism. and offers serious investment possibilities. Investors should, however, take note of a number of key factors while assessing potentialities, which will be outlined below. Any integrated investment project in this locality must accommodate various kinds of commercial institutionalisation, and multiple-phased development capabilities suitable for heritage and culture tourism, eco-tourism, theme parks, nature sports tourism, congress, festival & exhibition tourism, golf tourism, 4&5-star hotels, boutique hotels, etc. Such an undertaking would have to

  • be able to incorporate a high level of professional capability and commercial competence in deploying the fundamental characteristics of predominant natural and historic heritage in Cappadocia;
  • supplement infrastructural and operational requirements of conventional tour operations by further options for generating diversity, to be enriched, whenever feasible, by professionally prepared informative and entertaining interactive multimedia programmes and special events;
  • set up and sustain a medium of cooperation between prospective investors and public authorities, and in this regard, participate in and contribute to the identification and planning of infrastructural amelioration works (especially in scenic valleys and rockland assigned for, say, nature-sports and nature tours), to be carried out by municipal and govermental sources and agents;
  • actualise the overall scale and the level of integration of all planned facilities and services to be sufficient for the creation of a full-fledged center of attraction by itself;
  • capacitate facilities and services to offer weekly programmes for alternative entertainment to those (such as children, sportsmen, etc.) who would be less interested in what heritage tourism could offer;
  • reflect a singular identity in order to create synergy and symbiosis amongst the many (specialised) elements of the whole complex as well as with its neighbourhood;
  • sustain interaction between the constituents and complementary outlets in the neighbourhood with the setting up of common functional facilities for the benefit of all (such as, eateries, convention centers, sports facilities, health and beauty salons and facilities, shopping malls, cafes and bars, nightclubs and discotheques, etc.);
  • aim for an exquisite chain of facilities but not as an exclusive world effectively closed to the outside world;
  • ensure facilities to be run by carefully and competitively selected local or international operators with proven experience, in full conformity with decentralised management principles;
  • search for and constantly develop ways and means of cooperation with counterparts operating in major tourism destinations, such as Antalya and Istanbul;
  • constantly monitor and assess emerging opportunities in the region in parallel with focal emphasis in heritage tourism (in particular, the nearby Mt. Argaeus could offer new opportunities for reducing the effects of seasonality by diversifying into winter sports – currently, a rather modest skiing facility is operated there);
  • insist unwaveringly on the physical characteristics of the facilities to be planned and realised to synthetise and reflect the dominant architectural styles observed in the Cappadocian heritage, and strictly follow modern principles of environmental protection without exception;
  • provide assistance for enhancing diversity and enriching other (mainline) services by revitalising traditional occupations which have long been abandoned in the region (such as cultivation of vineyards and wine making) in cooperation with the local population.

 

 

 

On the strength of its corporate interest and as a positive indication of trust it has in the region, HANTEK Inc is currently seeking local and international prospective investors and strategic partners for defining and drafting the initial-phase an integrated investment project based on professional evaluation of market dynamics, financial capacity building, land acquisition and asset management.In this regard, partnering with local and international prospective investors and strategic consulting partners, and commensurate reorganisation, in very broad terms, should be expected to lead to an umbrella organisation for bringing together (a) investors, (b) business development consultants, and (c) project development and management consultants. What lies beyond this phase will largely be dependent on the outcome of the venture incorporation.