Speaking at the award ceremony where the Michelin Guide’s 2025 Istanbul, Izmir and Muğla selections were introduced, Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy evaluated the successes of Turkish cuisine in the international arena and the increasing interest in gastronomy in tourism.
Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy attended the Michelin Guide 2025 Istanbul-Izmir-Muğla selection award ceremony held at Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At The Bosphorus and emphasized the strong position of Turkish cuisine in the world gastronomy scene. Minister Ersoy stated that travel decisions are increasingly shaped around authentic food and beverage experiences, and stated that Turkish cuisine continues to write an important success story in the international arena with the support of the Ministry and the Tourism Development Agency (TGA). The expansion of the Michelin Guide’s presence in Turkey reinforces this global success of Turkish cuisine.
ISTANBUL (AA) – Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy attended the award ceremony of the Michelin Guide 2025 Istanbul-Izmir-Muğla selection, one of the world’s prestigious restaurant evaluation systems, held at Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At The Bosphorus.
Minister Ersoy said that Turkish cuisine has a strong position on the global gastronomy stage and has the potential to write a globally accepted success story.
Ersoy mentioned that travel decisions in the tourism sector are increasingly shaped around authentic food and beverage experiences and continued as follows:
“The already extremely strong structure of Turkish cuisine, the support given by our ministry to the development of our gastronomy sector, the global promotion plan implemented by the Tourism Development Agency (TGA) specifically for Turkish cuisine and the changes in consumer trends came together and our gastronomy sector rose to the significant position it deserves within our general tourism strategy. . The world-famous Michelin Guide did not remain indifferent to these developments and continued its story, which started with Istanbul, by adding Izmir and Bodrum in the following years.”
– “Our place and importance in the world gastronomy scene is increasing”
Ersoy stated that it is flattering for Turkish chefs to receive awards in a global list and said, “We hope that the Michelin selection, which will spread to Istanbul, Izmir and Bodrum as well as other districts of Muğla province in 2025, will be beneficial to all our selected restaurants. As you know, in order for our destinations to be among the world’s leading gastronomy cities, they must host both local flavors and successful examples of world cuisines.” he said.
Pointing out that Istanbul, Izmir and Muğla have successful restaurants that offer traditional and modern interpretations of the original Turkish cuisine, as well as numerous businesses that offer the most successful examples of world cuisine, Minister Ersoy said:
“The biggest benefit of the Michelin Guide to Turkey is to introduce this richness of ours to the world and to introduce the rich options of our cities to local and foreign visitors who want to have a unique gastronomy experience. The gastronomy sector is an area that is nourished by the climate, agriculture and animal husbandry conditions brought by the geography, on the one hand, and the historical and cultural heritage of the lands in which it is located. How lucky we are that our Istanbul, which unites the continents and offers unique experiences to its guests with its ancient past that served as the capital of empires, and our Izmir and Muğla provinces, which stand out with their extraordinary natural beauties, deep-rooted history and rich food cultures, and our gastronomy, which is now at the top of the preference lists of our local and foreign visitors. cities. Our place and importance in the world gastronomy scene is increasing with our chefs who blend this richness with new generation knowledge and creativity.”
– “We also revised the annual visitor target upwards to 61 million.”
Mehmet Nuri Ersoy also touched upon the importance of the Michelin Guide and said, “The visitor profile, which makes travel decisions around the unique experiences they will find, creates an important resource for our industry by experiencing our restaurants that have entered the Michelin selection. “Thanks to these restaurants that support local producers, we enable the growth of a considerable ecosystem from producers to suppliers, from the service sector to other related business lines.” shared his opinion.
Emphasizing that Turkish cuisine, with its thousands of years of history, is an undisputed tool of diplomacy to promote the true value of Turkey and Turkish people, Minister Ersoy gave the following information:
“This phenomenon, also called gastrodiplomacy, gives us important opportunities to explain to the world our ancient understanding of sustainability, our tolerance between different cultures and our unifying character that our traditions have given us. In order to introduce this identity to the world, we give gastronomy-specific advertisements in many countries of the world with the ‘Deliciously Türkiye’ campaigns organized by TGA. We open a separate section for gastronomy in our main advertising campaigns published in 200 countries. All promotional activities are directly reflected in Turkey’s overall tourism results. Türkiye hosted 49.2 million visitors in the first nine months of 2024 and earned 46.9 billion dollars in tourism revenue. Our country’s annual growth in the number of visitors was 9 percent and its annual growth in revenues was 7 percent. “Our growth in tourism data and the reservation numbers we predicted by the end of the year were so strong that we revised the annual visitor target, which we announced as 60 million at the beginning of the year, upwards to 61 million.”
– “Our goal is to make all accommodation facilities one hundred percent sustainable.”
Underlining that kitchens have a critical place in making the world sustainable, Ersoy said, “Not wasting the product you use and working with zero waste logic are facts that are already included in the cultural codes of Turkish cuisine. However, sustainability is an issue for us that goes far beyond these traditions. There is an organization in the world that determines and controls the sustainability standards of the tourism industry. Global Sustainable Tourism Council, whose establishment is based on the decision of the United Nations and known as GSTC in short, is the global umbrella organization of sustainability in tourism. Turkey is the first state in the world to sign the GSTC at the government level, and our National Sustainability Program, which we launched in 2022 in cooperation with the GSTC, is among the firsts in the world in terms of its content. Nowadays, as we are about to close the year 2024, more than 19 thousand accommodation facilities in our country are in the Sustainability Certification process of GSTC. Our goal is to make all accommodation facilities in our country one hundred percent sustainable by 2030.” he said.
Stating that accommodation is a very important leg of the tourism ecosystem, Ersoy continued his words as follows:
“Another very important component of our industry is undoubtedly the food and beverage industry. From local supplier selection to the field-to-kitchen approach, from recycling to energy consumption, our food and beverage industry will undoubtedly contribute greatly to Turkey’s sustainability journey. From this perspective, I am very happy to announce that GSTC has started sustainability certification studies for restaurants with Turkey’s initiatives. “In a short time, we will invite our food and beverage industry to our National Sustainability Program and we will set an example for the world in sustainability in gastronomy.”
Ersoy congratulated all the businesses included in the Michelin Guide and said, “We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our talented chefs who blend the most qualified products of their regions with the ‘farm to table’ approach and bring our thousands of years of culinary experience to the plates with their updated interpretations, and we would like to reiterate our desire for our new cities to enter the guide in the coming years.” .” He made his assessment.
