Turkey is very rich in terms of touristic and it is of crucial importance that Turkey uncovers its potential through efficient investments. We would like to continue our achievements in the sea, sun and sand tourism in alternative types of tourism like winter tourism, culture tourism, plato tourism, health tourism, congress tourism in order to further our successful vision. We see that those visiting Turkey for winter tourism, culture tourism, sports tourism and hunting tourism also spend the rest of their time visiting shopping centers, other cities, getting to know about the culture of cities and shopping in closed and open bazaars thus bringing more income to our country.
Located 25 km far from the Kayseri city center, Erciyes Mountain is the highest one in Central Anatolia with an altitude of 3.917 meters. Known as the mountain which comes closer as you get away and vise versa, Erciyes has an important place in winter tourism. We aim to make Kayseri a center of winter tourism by organizing sports events on the national and international scale and World Championships and Olympiads on the long term. Launched as a component of the vision of making winter sports and winter tourism an icon of Kayseri’s identity, Erciyes Master Plan aims to provide the place its deserves in winter tourism to Erciyes.
The name of Erciyes could be associated with a large number of things. The volcanic explosions in the mountain, which is now an extinct volcano, originally started nearly 30 million years ago. The gullies of the mountain are deeply cracked, in some parts vaults and ridges form higher hillsides with slopes extending towards the right and left and finally two hills are formed on these slopes. One of these is Erciyes, with a height of 3917, forming the summit of the mountain. The second hill is the Safrakaya Hill on the west part which is also called the Little Erciyes. The ashes erupting from Erciyes were carried away by the wind and formed the fair chimneys around Nevşehir and Ürgüp together with Hasan Mountain. There is a one km long mountain glacier on the North of Erciyes which is covered with snow all seasons. In addition, the caves in which the Byzantium priests lived in isolation located on the top of the mountain also provide shelter for the mountaineers in harsh weather conditions. With a height of 3.917 meters, Erciyes Mountain is the symbol of Kayseri with its grandness and its summit piercing the clouds with the snow never leaving it.
Thanks to Mount Erciyes Kayseri has a significant advantage in terms of winter tourism along with its cultural and natural assets. Kayseri has become one of the leading cities of Turkey with its history in industry and commerce, entrepreneur people with their fame in surpassing national borders; three Zones of Industry, a Free Zone, 11 small sites of industry; nearly 30 facilities of industry ranking in the first 1000 units of industry in the country; and export rate of 2 billion dollars; the third biggest closed bazaar of Turkey after those in İstanbul and Bursa; available and prospective modern shopping centers; 2 state and 2 private universities providing education to more than 65 thousand students thus becoming one of the cities with the most number of universities in Anatolia; advanced medical centers and educational institutions; sports complexes, metropolitan structure with no problems of transportation, communication, accommodation, water and energy and sub-structure; above all, with its historical, cultural and natural peculiarities especially Erciyes.
One of the international gates of Kayseri, Erciyes Mountain is one of the most important points of snow tourism with its grandness and summit full of snow throughout the year. The third highest mountain of Turkey and the highest one in Central Anatolia, Erciyes has attained the status of an international center of winter sports. Hosting tracks and lines extremely suitable for skiing and mountaineering, Erciyes is getting rid of its shortcomings in terms of accommodation by establishing new accommodation facilities.
Erciyes ranks among the top places in the world in terms of infra-structure efficiency. We are establishing a ski center which is the easiest to reach and which has the most comfortable roads in the world. As the transportation from big cities to Kayseri is so easy by plane and it’s so easy to get to Erciyes from the city centre. Kayseri will enter among the first preferences of domestic and foreign tourists with its easy transportation, facilities, cuisine, natural, cultural and historical richness.
Kayseri is continuing to take steps to turn the snow, known as the “white wedding gown” of nature into a matter of touristic income. Kayseri also hosts crucial components supporting winter tourism. It can appeal to “Gastronomy Tourism” with its regional cuisine including some cultural and natural peculiarities like Kapuzbaşı Waterfalls, Sultan Reeds, Artifacts from the Seljuk Era, museums and historical artifacts, and the tourism potentials of neighboring cities also facilitate the development of winter tourism in Kayseri.
In this context, we have also realized relevant works regarding the integration of touristic tours to Nevşehir which hosts the Cappadocia Region, and summer tourism tours in Kayseri, to improve the regional tourism. Kayseri was once the capital city of Cappadocia Kingdom in history and currently the cultural tourism activities in Cappadocia and winter tourism activities in Erciyes are presented in one package to make use of seasonal advantages of both cities and to provide a different travel experience to tourists, a first of its kind in the world. We have taken a huge step towards the formation of a regional destination point by combining two touristic regions and different travel experiences under the concept of “Cultural Skiing”. Cultural and skiing tourism packages are presented in one single package with 2 days in Cappadocia and 5 days on Erciyes skiing center.
Moreover, the Institute of Mineral Research and Exploration is maintaining their studies to find thermal springs on Erciyes Mountain. If thermal springs are found on Erciyes, originally a volcano, thermal tourism will flourish along with winter tourism.
One of the factors that will enable us to take important steps in the field of tourism in Kayseri is the fact that the public of Kayseri are ready for tourism mobility, as well as being open to new ideas, and these will be necessary once the Skiing Center is opened for service. We can express that Kayseri public, known for their hospitality, commercial and industrial intelligence, are ready to take responsibility to transfer these values to tourism.