UNESCO Heritage Ottoman city breaks visitor records in 2024

Safranbolu, a historical town in Karabuk, Türkiye, achieved a significant milestone in the first half of 2024.

While Türkiye boasts many must-visit destinations, Safranbolu stands out for its well-preserved Ottoman architecture, welcoming around 3.188 million visitors. This impressive figure includes both day-trippers and overnight tourists, surpassing previous records.

The town, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of the Cittaslow network, attracted large crowds during the Ramazan and Kurban Bayram holidays.

Over these holidays, Safranbolu hosted about 3.098 million visitors, with 1.873 million during Ramazan and 1.225 million during Kurban Bayram. This influx has been a significant boost to the town, which has a population of 68,000.

International, domestic appeal of Ottoman gem, Safranbolu

Safranbolu is famous for its historic inns, baths, mosques, fountains, bridges, and mansions from the Ottoman era. The town’s unique charm attracts tourists from around the world, including Taiwan, China, Thailand, the United States, Japan, South Korea, India, Germany, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Sebnem Urgancioglu, President of the Safranbolu Tourism Operators Association, shared her insights on this achievement with Ihlas News. “These six months included the Ramazan and Kurban Bayram holidays, so we reached our annual target in just six months. We estimate that approximately 1.5 million people visited during Ramazan Bayram. For Kurban Bayram, vehicle entries reached about 302,789, suggesting that 2.5 million people visited just during the holiday period. This includes both day-trippers and those staying overnight,” she explained.

Safranbolu is becoming a must-see destination in Türkiye

Urgancioglu also noted a significant increase in both domestic and international visitors. “We saw a 30% increase in domestic overnight visitors and an 80% increase in international visitors. This makes us very happy.”

She added, “The decline in tourism in some Aegean hotels has positively impacted our numbers. We hope to continue this trend in the next six months and set a new record for the year,” she said.

Autumn is also a popular season for visiting Safranbolu, and Urgancioglu is optimistic about closing 2024 with record-breaking visitor numbers.