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Hotel Operation

Kars, being the door of Turkey opening to Middle Asia and Caucasus has been the appeal center for foreigners in each term thanks to its cultural structure and natural beauties. Ani Ancient City, Sarıkamış Ski Center, Camuşlu Rock Paintings, Çıldır River, Susuz Waterfall, Kars castle, Kümber Mosque (Havariler Church), Evliya Mosque and Ebul Hasan Harakani Mausoleum at the city center, Turkish bathes, Stone Bridge, Tabyalar and stone constructions built after 1878 Russian occupation are the primary historical and natural beauties appealing to the tourist. PUSHKIN and GURDJIEFF during the Russian occupation and Orhan PAMUK in 1990s created routes for their visits to see the beauties of Kars in-place. Groups are visiting Kars from Istanbul, Ankara and Russia by following these routes.

Tourists visiting Kars for ski tourism during winter season accommodate in the hotels in Sarıkamış. Apart from the ski tourism, the tourists visiting Kars accommodate generally in city center. Accommodation demand in the city center is high because of both the tourists and the fact that it is located on Caucasus routes. Thanks to the Baku-Tiflis-Kars high speed train railway to operate in the following years, Kars will be the most important door of Turkey opening to Caucasus and Central Asia. With the launch of train line, very high tourism movement locally and internationally is expected to be experienced. Because thank to this line, Kars will be connected to the capitals of two countries by 3-hour-travel directly.

With the investments carried out in highway, railway and airway, there has been a significant increase in the transportation capacity of the province. Upon the completion of Ankara-Kars high speed train line, the travel time which lasts 25 hours currently will decrease to 8 hours. And upon the operation of Baku-Tiflis-Kars railway line for transportation, it is predicted to have a capacity for 1 million passengers annually at the first phase and that of 3 million passengers in 2034. Flights are realized from Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir to Kars each day reciprocally.

Upon the presence of natural gas infrastructure in the city center of Kars, the completion of water, canalization and electric infrastructure will not bear any problem for the potential investments in terms of water sources. Sarıkamış Vocational School of Higher Education within Caucasus University provides support to the industry in providing technical personnel in tourism. Additionally, the personnel working in the current accommodation facilities are provided with training in accommodation, hotel operation, catering services, etc. regularly.

Tourism is one of the prior sectors in the region and it has the opportunities of making investments and increasing capacity with the help of support mechanisms such as SERKA and TKDK.

City center of Kars has a great potential for middle-scaled urban hotel management and the historical buildings can be renovated and used as boutique hotels. Such work will contribute to the city in terms of gain of the idle buildings to the economy and increase of the visual quality.