Gaziantep cuisine to woo international tourists groups

GAZİANTEP - Anatolia News Agency

A project initiated to transform the southeastern province of Gaziantep into a center of gastronomical tourism aims to promote the region’s unique dishes to the rest of the world and attract more people interested in food tourism

Gaziantep is famous for its traditional foods. The city has launched an innovative new project to encourage increased tourists. AA photo

Famous for its traditional foods, the southeastern province of Gaziantep has launched an innovative new project in a bid to encourage increased numbers of gastronomic tourists to the area.

The “Gastronomy World Explores Gaziantep Cuisine” project has been developed in collaboration with the Silk Road Development Agency Tourism Finance Program. The Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce (GTO) Deputy Secretary General Figen Çeliktürk said this marked the growth of an alternative sort of tourism in the city.

Gaziantep has a value of brand name in terms of gastronomy tourism, Çeliktürk said. “The project is expected to make the city a central tourism destination. With an increased focus on food, the number of visitors to the city will swell and tourists will spend more time in the city. The value of the tourism sector in the region will subsequently increase.”

Gastronomy tours

As part of the project, Gaziantep’s cuisine would be promoted both nationally and internationally, she said. “We will organize gastronomy tours to Gaziantep. This way, tourists visiting the city will stay longer.”

Çeliktürk said the total budget for the project was 172,052 Turkish Liras. The target group was Turkish and foreign tourists interested in gastronomical tourism, as well as food bloggers, gourmets from around the world and non-governmental organizations working in the fields of media and tourism.

A book on Gaziantep culture

Alongside the project, a book on Gaziantep cuisine will be published with the Gaziantep Special Province Directorate and the Association for Friends of the Kitchen, and a promotional film and website will be produced as well.

Çeliktürk said the cookbook will also be translated into English and a promotional event for gourmets will be organized. “We plan to join the Paris Cookbook Fair and Oxford International Food Symposium.”

January/23/2012

Note : Gaziantep is a lovely city with great food  !!! I recommend everyone go there and taste it´s great food !

Nice post, tunci. But it is irresponsible to advertise food trips to someone like me who has been hungry for four months. There is nothing to eat in Egypt.

 Sorry to hear that Abla.

The other day I watched it on BBC HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2g6eBLyx5s

=> (tunci ) Hocam sizi desteklemek boynumuzun borcu

=> (abla ) sorry for posting this  

 Eksik olma Ustad [Scalpel].

Link´i izledim. İlginçti. Özellikle Anteplilerin sabah kahvaltıda yediği o etli çorba tarzı şey iştahımı kabarttı.

I hope your stay in Egypt has been good, and that you are enjoying the place. Or are you ready to go home?

Here is some food you might like abla

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Poronkäristys.jpg

Oh, thank you, boys, you are being so helpful. I will soon hit my teeth to the screen. Henry, for some reason I think about sour lingonberries every day.

Mavili, I´m fine really. I can stay just about anywhere. When you live in a country for a longer time you begin to see how life really is there. But a culture shock is likely to happen, no matter how prepared you are. There is a period of discomfort. Sure there is delicious food in Egypt, it´s my mouth that doesn´t want to take it.

ok I give up, I´m with abla on this one, my monitor is about to have tongue marks on it from licking

Great videos and true All of that food looks really delicious. Though I would try the local cuisine at just about anywhere in Turkiye. It was a little funny to see the curious reactions of the vendor owners and shoppers when he was at the market in Gaziantep. Like they were facinated by his strong English accent

Im also glad to learn that Baklava is truely a Turkish original. And lahmacun is one of those foods I´d love to try making but I don´t know if I could do it justice.

I have recently been cooking some easy Turkish foods though. At Christmas I made Bulgar Köftesi, and just recently I cooked up Molassas Halva bars. 

Oh wow that looks delicious! Last thursday I have made ´mantısı´. It was delicious! I don´t know if I am allowed to post it here or if this is a topic for food of a certain region but anyway, you should try them once! And I also want to make Lahmacun (I love it above all) but I´m also scared!

Ah, they stole my idea! I have already been "doing" food tourism throughout Turkey for a while now.