Making Its Presence Known

Derya Serbetci Acar says it’s time for Canadians to try Troy.

Serbetci Acar is now carrying the flag for the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey in Canada, with her recent arrival in Toronto marking the re-establishment of a Canadian tourism office following the closure of the last one in the mid-1990s, reports Ian Stalker in this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier.

Serbetci Acar is now working out of the Turkish consulate in Toronto and expects to move into a dedicated Toronto office next year.

“Turkish tourism is growing so fast,” she says. “Right now, Turkey is the sixth-most visited country in the world, according to the World Tourism Organization.”

Turkey last year saw 39.8 million visitors, some 190,000 of them Canadian.

Tourism efforts in this country are bolstered by Turkish Airlines linking Montreal and Toronto with Istanbul and codesharing with Air Canada.

Much of Turkey’s tourist trade revolves around Mediterranean beaches that host huge numbers of northern Europeans, but Serbetci Acar says that’s only one side to her country, which has a “very interesting history” that dates back to 7000 BC.

Among points of interest are Ephesus, shaped by the Romans and others and the surrounding area of which has a house the Vatican has declared to be the home in which the Virgin Mary spent her final years in; Troy, site of the famous battle and now home to a large replica of its famed wooden horse; Hattay, home to a church that dates back to Christianity’s earliest days and the site where Christians were first called Christians; and the temple of Gobeklitepe, believed to date back some 10,000 years, which would make it the oldest known temple in the world, and therefore the birthplace of the “concept of religion,” Serbetci Acar says.

“Turkey is the home of civilization,” she continues.

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier by clicking here.