Turkey: Alliances for Culture Tourism (ACT) in Eastern Anatolia

Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

JOINT PROGRAMME QUICK FACTS

Total Budget $3,800,000

Delivery Rate

Participating Agencies UNICEF, UNDP, WTO, UNESCO

Main Achievements

• The Tourism Strategy Document for Kars, with the vision of promoting the region as a centre for natural and cultural tourism, was developed and approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. A complete audit was carried out on Kars Province’s tourism facilities and services.
• Trainings held to develop the capacities of relevant stakeholders on the management of cultural heritage sites, preparation of management plans and entrepreneurship to enhance income from tourism-related activities.
• Kars tourism supported through marketing and awareness activities, the mapping of Intangible Cultural Heritage, establishment of the Kars Culture House, and activities to safeguard the Minstrelsy tradition. Children Museum Rooms were established in Kars and Erzurum, and a Children Museum Training Programme was developed and carried out in nine provinces.

Contact Nese Cakir, JP Coordinator
nese.cakir@undp.org

The joint program will mobilize the culture sector in Turkey’s least developed region – east Anatolia. The result will be increased incomes and enhanced understanding of “shared” culture between the people of eastern Anatolia and of neighboring countries and among people of different faiths.

This will be achieved by building capacities of managers of cultural assets, local authorities and civil society in eastern Anatolia to protect heritage while also benefiting from it in sustainable tourism practices through provision of tourism business development services at various sectors. At the end of the program, local authorities and civil society will be able to identify and manage shared culture assets in line with international norms and respecting the values attributed to these assets by people in other countries, from other background or of different faiths than their own. Similarly, an increased understanding of shared culture will be achieved at the national level.