Turkey’s most important faith tourism centers of the Sumela Monastery visitors to facilitate the transport and will be established in order to provide the opportunity to see the top of the valley where about 150 million pounds cost of the cable car project tender is planned for the first six months of 2021.
Trabzon Mayor Murat Zorluoğlu, located at the highest point in Altındere Valley town of Macka Sumela Monastery in the region and said that a very important destination was Turkey’s historical heritage.
Reminding that the Sümela Monastery has been on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Temporary List since 2000, Zorluoğlu stated that they started working with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to make the monastery on the World Cultural Heritage List. Stating that they think that Sümela deserves more in this state, Zorluoğlu said, “UNESCO takes some of the works on the World Cultural Heritage Temporary List into the permanent list over time. The countries are conducting this process, that is, the countries apply. Now we have started this process. We are at a protocol stage with our Ministry of Culture. ” said.
Emphasizing that they will project Sümela and go to Paris, where the headquarters of UNESCO is located with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and university representatives, they will explain why Sümela should be included in the World Cultural Heritage List, Zorluoğlu said, “We will convince them and hopefully, our goal in 2022 It will be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.”
He spoke: “Stating that people who are interested in cultural tourism follow the lists on UNESCO’s website, Zorluoğlu said, “There is a great interest especially for those on the permanent list. Göbeklitepe was recently included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 2018. In this sense, to attract tourists from developed countries of the world who are interested in artworks to Sümela, I hope we will achieve this” used the expressions.
Ring vehicles put into service to solve traffic congestion in the region
Noting that they, as the Metropolitan Municipality, carry out many different works in the region where Sümela is located, Zorluoğlu said that they first put the ring vehicles into service to solve the traffic congestion. Drawing attention to the fact that they built two parking lots with a capacity of approximately 500 vehicles, where the vehicles coming to the region are subject to compulsory parking, Zorluoğlu explained that the visitors can go to a point close to the monastery by ring vehicles and then return to the parking lot with the same vehicles.
Pointing out that the implementation will be like this in the new tourism season, Zorluoğlu stated that the traffic congestion in the region will completely disappear. Stating that the road to the monastery is also the route that provides access to the higher quarters and plateaus, Zorluoğlu said, “That’s why we built a bypass road parallel to the main route, 11 kilometers and now we are paving its asphalt. They will be able to easily reach their plateaus and neighborhoods” said.
Expressing that they also bought the facilities in the lower part of the valley from the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, Zorluoğlu stated that they were demolished and rebuilt in accordance with the local architecture. Zorluoğlu stated that the construction of the facility is continuing to catch up with the new season, they will provide high quality service to the visitors here, and they will also operate the gift shops as the Metropolitan Municipality.
Build-operate-state model will be applied in the ropeway project
Mayor Murat Zorluoğlu said that the third project for the Sümela Monastery is the cable car business. Underlining that the two-stop cable car project has been completed, Zorluoğlu made the following evaluations:
“The first leg starts from the parking lot, that is, in the valley, and reaches a high point far from Sumela. In the project, there are viewing terraces, eating and drinking areas, walking areas. The second leg carries you to a point close to Sümela, therefore the two-stop cable car system.The first stop will be an area where you can spend 3-4 hours with a completely different view, observation terraces, walking paths, restaurants. You get on the cable car again, and from there it takes you off at a very close point to Sümela Monastery, which we call the second leg, and from there you go to Sümela. Stating that they are looking for investors for the project, which has been completed and cost about 100-150 million liras.”
Zorluoğlu said, “A few serious investors are in contact with us, I hope we will hold the tender in a short time. This process affected. Therefore, we hope that we will realize this tender in the first 2021 months of 6. It is a bit of a customer-related job because we will not do this, we have to find investors for it because we will do it with the build-operate-transfer model.”
