Page 424 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Dalkic, Gulcin. Tuydes-Yaman, Hediye. Delaplace, Marie.

4.3.3 Observations during the technical trip to Eskişehir

A technical trip to Eskişehir started from the Eskişehir Railway Station on foot and included
some touristic places in the city center, mainly around the Odunpazarı region, which
revealed that the city had a good image and there were a lot of attractive places. Some
other weaknesses were observed as lack of actively working tourist information centre and
urban transportation information at train station (see Image 2).

While the tramway network is still in a developing stage, it connects the city centre to
the most attractive places in the city such as Odunpazarı Historical Center, intercity bus
terminal, universities, etc., though not the HSR station directly; the nearest tramway stop
is located within 400 m walking distance (see Figure 2) and there are no directional signs
leading HSR users to the city centre.

The Sazova Theme Park was visited, which was not accessible with public transportation
service directly. However, there exists the Eskişehir Mobile City Guide, a smart phone
application, which includes the location information on cultural places, museums, shopping
places, universities, etc. is very comprehensive and informative. An interview with the
Eskişehir Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate revealed that HSR affected the urban
economy and the number of daily visits increased after HSR started to operate.

4.4 Konya as a HSR city

4.4.1 Tourism in Konya

Konya is an important centre in terms of religious and culture tourism both in national and
international level. It was the place where Rumi (or Mevlana), an important Persian-born
Islamic scholar, lived most of his life. His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage today.
The Whirling Dervishes perform once a year during the Mevlana Festival in every beginning
of December. In 2005, the Mevlana Sama Ceremony in Konya was proclaimed by UNESCO as
one of the Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (Egresi et al., 2012).

In addition to Mevlana Museum, there are a lot of historical places and recreation areas in
Konya. Figure 4 shows the locations of attractive places and some of their photos are given
in Image 3.

According to the information given by the Konya Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate,
Konya has further potential in health, congress, fair and meeting, nature, sport and
hunting tourism as well (Konya Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate, 2017, interview,
25/03/2017). Currently, Konya has 37 hotels (having 2-5 stars) with 3080 rooms and 6161
beds and 107 accommodation places with 2430 rooms and 5189 bed capacities. However, 12
hotels with 4769 beds have also received investment certificates.

In addition, World Trade Centre and Fair Exhibition area, which will have a conference room
with 1000 seats, meeting halls, exhibition areas and restaurants, is in the planning phase.
Also, there are 7 first class restaurants having investment certificate in the city (Konya
Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate, 2017).

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