PARTICIPATION OF TURKEY TO THE EDEN PROJECT

Turkish Culture and Tourism Office called owners of proposals from Turkey to apply for nomination of national destination to the pilot project of European Destinations of Excellence, developed around the theme of “tourism and intangible heritage” in 2008 and organized by the European Commission Enterprise and Industry secondly.
This call of proposal was free to apply by municipalities, special provincial administrations, rural services and this kind of local governments and local units; associations; professional societies; trade unions; non-governmental organizations and universities.
49 participants applied to the project allowing only public institution and non-profit corporations according with these aims. We applied with the project of “Traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestling”. This application was done according to the criteria of application and elected by the ministerial office and took place in the top list of 5 destinations with highest points (Edirne, Aksehir/Konya, Bayburt, Kirsehir, Cumalikizik/Bursa). The Election Committee visited our city and collected information about the destination during the election period and prepared a detailed report about the winner destination. “Traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestling” project was awarded as the winner by collecting the highest point among 5 destinations.

POSITIVE RETURNS OF EDEN PROJECT

Our awarded project was represented as the candidate destination of Turkey to The European Commission in 2008. Also The Ministerial Office in Turkey will award our project.  In this content;

• Advertorials about intangible heritages of the awarded destination will be prepared and published
• Activities of the awarded “Traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestling” project will be supported financially.

Moreover, The European Commission will advertised the awarded destination of Turkey across the Europe; draw attention of European tourists to the destination and establish networking between awarded destinations.