Minister Ataoğlu was present at Nitovikla Garden Hotel, together with KTOES General Secretary Şener Elçil, Mehmetcik Mayor Cemil Sarıcizmeli, and Kristien de Bootd, who is involved in agro tourism and agriculture in Belgium, for the opening ceremony of the Eco-Bio Agro Tourism Business project “Learning Cyprus Cuisine and Culture”.
The Minister of Tourism and Environment Fikri Ataoğlu opened the event and said “You will be learning and living this Cyprus culture”.
Zekai Altan, who created and implemented this project, was present with his wife Kader Altan.
The 2017/2018 project started with 79 students and 10 teachers from Guzelyurt Primary School and the lesson was received with great enthusiasm. Minister Ataoğlu said “You are on the way to being a tourism ambassador in this country” and added : “Today we are going to fulfil our duty in our best efforts for the implementation and survival of this culture. We are very happy for the contribution you have made to our students and our parents and teachers. In addition to the survival of our culture, we have said that we are prepared to bring our contribution to environmental education and culture to the highest level, which we have prepared for schools about the protection of the environment and the creation of environmental awareness”.
Ataoğlu also pointed out that this special and meaningful project initiated at Nitovikla cannot be underestimated with the training of 2100 students and the education given in the period 2016-2017. He stated that this year’s target will be 3000 students and that he will give the necessary contribution to increase this number even more.
As a tourist, Belgian agro tourism and organic farmer Kristien de Boodt, spoke with Minister Ataoğlu. Kristien, as a tourist, learned about environment-culture work and organic garden work with Zekai Altan at Nitovkla.
Ataoğlu said that Kristien, had underlined how important Eco-agro tourism is, and she is a very important example for this project. Ataoğlu stated that he would push all efforts and opportunities for the development of agro-eco tourism and that he would make every effort and legal arrangements for the survival and development of this project in a way that it deserves.
