Diversifying tourism in Mardin, a city already competitive in cultural and religious tourism, paved the way to creating a brand concept for the city and positioning Mardin in the tourism sector through this brand and accompanying visual and textural designs.

As part of the project, a series of trainings were delivered to tourism SMEs, particularly in the areas of food production and service capacities. With these trainings to staff of restaurants, hotels, tour operators, tour guides and tourism information officials, the quality of services were improved.

The project also aimed to strengthen tourism infrastructure by renovating the facades of the buildings located in the protected area of First Street and standardizing the signs, shutters and awnings systems.

The Governorship of Mardin working toward an application to class Mardin on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The Sustainable Tourism Project was one step toward reaching this objective.

Mardin is notable within Türkiye and internationally for its successful preservation of cultural heritage and a faith tourism industry based on a history of many civilizations dating back to 4500 BC. 

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention has the duty of “ensuring the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage.” Cities ranked among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites are a major attraction for local and foreign tourists and tour operators, constituting an important tool for sustainable tourism.