Ağrı Mountain eyes tourism developments

AĞRI – Anatolia News Agency

Ağrı has many locations for tourism. AA photos

The historical İshak Paşa Palace, Ağrı Mountain and Ahmed-i Hani Tomb will become part of the tourism development of Ağrı city in Turkey. Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University education faculty academic Faruk Kaya said they are doing work and research to reveal the geographical and cultural structure of the city and explore how to promote the city within its cultural characteristics.

According to Kaya, Ağrı has several important touristic characteristics.

Noting that the tourism value of Ağrı is not known well enough, Kaya said that Ağrı has beauty and the new work in the city aims to reveal this beauty.

Eastern Anatolia is not well developed in terms of tourism, he said, adding that the natural beauty of the area and its historical heritage are not known well enough. However, with its archeological artifacts, the district has a very important place in tourism and can be developed.

Sites with tourism value should be presented in a tourism-focused framework, said Kaya, adding that the several incidents of terrorism in the city were not the reason that Ağrı could not attract tourists.

“This area has vast cultural attraction and natural historical heritage and there is tourism potential. The developing tourism facilities and rising quality of the facilities and services will help us to attract more tourists and contribute to the economy of the city,” he said.

Historical structures to be discovered

Noting that Ağrı and its environment are suitable for recreational activities such as hunting and skiing, Kaya said these sports have a real potential to attract tourists.

“We need to prepare a development project for the city that will focus on tourism. The incentives given by the European Union for tourism development should be used. We need to attract foreign tourists to Ağrı and strengthen the infrastructure work,” he said.

Noting that there are many historical structures that are waiting to be discovered in Ağrı, Kaya said: “Ağrı is known for its historical heritage, which consists of mountains, palaces and natural beauty such as fish ponds and so on. The lost city of Noah, known as Naxuan, is another important attraction of Ağrı.”

Lots of tourists coming to Ağrı visit İshak Paşa and Ağrı Mountain each year. “Exclusively, Noah’s legend also attracts many tourists to the mountains of Ağrı,” Kaya said, noting that this may help to develop the economy of Ağrı.

However, these cultural and natural values should be presented in the international arena, he added.

“To evaluate tourism resources, the most important thing to develop is to remake the facilities in Ağrı,” said Kaya. “Sports events and many other tourism events can take place in Ağrı, however the tourism facilities first need to be of high quality,” he added.