Turizmban
A city that built its railway through a shared venture can build its tourism the same way. A tourism body on the İZBAN model, aiming for five million visitors a year.
Why İZBAN?
İZBAN is the commuter rail system founded jointly by the state railway TCDD and İzmir Metropolitan Municipality: two separate institutions, one line.
Turizmban carries that partnership into tourism. A city's tourism is not a load one institution can pull alone; it takes a shared body that ties investment, licensing and promotion to the same goal.
A city short of tourists
While Antalya, İstanbul, Muğla and Cappadocia count their visitors in millions, İzmir is still short of beds, flights and season.
- 5
- 20
- 3
- 12
Six concrete steps
Not a slogan: a to-do list with a clear first step.
Bring Hilton back
The first concrete step, and a call to domestic and foreign investment groups to invest in İzmir.
The Basmane pit
A five-star hotel with congress halls and ample parking: a project to feed the city centre and Kemeraltı.
Kemeraltı
Hotel licences rather than office-block licences in the UNESCO World Heritage candidate bazaar and across Konak, and room for tourism-supporting buildings within the historic zone.
Beds and flights
Airlines want to keep their passengers in a single hotel. No new hotels means no new direct flights; the target is 20,000 beds.
Congress centre
Today only one hotel can host a large congress, so agencies choose Antalya. A modern centre for at least 3,000 people means tourism that lives twelve months a year.
Çeşme and Ilıca
Fix the infrastructure in Alaçatı and Çeşme and stop uncontrolled residence projects. In Ilıca, 60 decares of municipal land over the thermal spring should have gone to a cure centre, stretching the season from two months to twelve.
Yeni oteller yapılmazsa İzmir'e yeni uçuşlar gelmeyecek.
“Without new hotels, no new flights will come to İzmir.” Beds bring flights, investment brings beds: that is where Turizmban starts the chain.
The proposal in his own words
A guest of Nihat Delibaşı on Tek Referans TV, he explains the Turizmban proposal and the five-million-tourist target. In Turkish.
Turizm Aktüel: “İzmir seeks tourism's salvation in Turizmban”. The full proposal, in Turkish. Tercan speaks as vice chair of ETİK and a member of the İzmir Chamber of Commerce's High Advisory Board.