Adana Metropolitan Municipality’s preliminary application for ‘City of Gastronomy’ to UNESCO Creative Cities Network with the support of Adana Governorship and Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism was accepted. A 2019 UNESCO City of Gastronomy Information Meeting was held at a hotel in the city. Speaking at the meeting, Mayor Zeydan Karalar said, ‘The acceptance of the first phase of the project was influenced by the Taste Festival, the Golden Boll Film Festival, the Kebab and Turnip Festival and the Orange Blossom Carnival.’

ADANA HAS GREAT POTENTIAL

Emphasising that Adana, which attracts attention with its historical, natural and cultural richness, has a great tourism potential but they cannot promote it sufficiently, Karalar said, ‘Adana is a city whose name has not changed for more than 3,500 years. It is known that Hippocrates opened the first hospital in Yumurtalık. It is known that the first organ transplant was performed in Adana. It is a woman from Adana who made the first peace treaty in the world. But we cannot introduce these to the world countries sufficiently. We will soon have a booklet and we will tell about them. During our mayorship of Seyhan Municipality, we wanted to apply to include Taşköprü, the only bridge from the Romans that is still in use in the world, in the world heritage, but we did not apply because the district application was invalid. If Adana is accepted by UNESCO as a Gastronomy City, it will jump up a class.’

GASTRONOMY TOURISM IS ON THE RISE

Governor Mahmut Demirtaş stated that as the Governorship, they will continue to do their best for the development of tourism in the city and said:

‘The registration of Adana, with its ancient culture and history, as a gastronomy city within the scope of the Creative Cities Network by UNESCO will mean the completion of the southern chain of the faith and gastronomy corridor together with Hatay and Gaziantep, which are already in this network. Today, tourism all over the world is built on the promotion of the characteristics of local culture. Eating and drinking habits, which are the most important part of local culture, have become one of the most important instruments in the marketing of tourism destinations. In this direction, gastronomy tourism, which has the opportunity to spread to twelve months of the year, is among the rising trends of tourism today. Even when we consider only this aspect, the local and traditional cuisine of Adana, which is one of the important centres of traditional Turkish cuisine with its variety, quality and richness of ingredients, has all the features for gastronomy tourism.’

UNESCO WILL ANNOUNCE ITS DECISION IN NOVEMBER

On the other hand, it was reported that UNESCO Paris Secretariat will examine the application by making a preliminary screening, and the decision will be shared at the meeting to be held in November at the end of the examination to be made by independent experts in August-September. If the registration decision is taken, Adana will become the 3rd gastronomy city of Turkey together with Hatay and Gaziantep, which are also included in this network. Currently, there are 26 gastronomy cities all over the world.