A total of 80 teams, 76 foreign and 4 Turkish, came to Antalya for the Turkey Winter Races Series, which was implemented under the leadership of the Cycling Tourism Association and where 23 international bicycle races will be held. The teams and athletes, who will stay in 24 bicycle-friendly hotels in Antalya, will also introduce Antalya and Turkey as they prepare for the season with 23 races. Şamil Yaşacan, President of the Cycling Tourism Association, stated that this series will be the biggest international bicycle racing series in the world and said, "Turkey will attract the attention of the cycling world."

Cycling Tourism Rising
Cycling tourism in Turkey continues to rise rapidly. The important bicycle races and camp organizations held one after the other in Turkey made a significant contribution to the rise of Turkey in the cycling world. The Cycling Tourism Association, headquartered in Antalya, also pioneered an important race series to accelerate Turkey's rapid rise.

Accommodation in Bicycle Friendly Hotels
Within the scope of the Turkey Winter Races Series, which will take place in the World Cycling Union (UCI) calendar and will start on January 28, 2023, 23 international bicycle races will be held. Within the scope of the series, 1260 athletes from 76 foreign teams and 63 Turkish athletes from 4 Turkish teams will compete. 1323 athletes will be accommodated in 24 Bicycle Friendly Hotels, led by the Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy. Turkey 2023 Winter Races Series is of great importance for professional world teams as it gives UCI and Olympic points.

Contribution to Promotion and Economy
The teams that will prepare for the season by camping in Antalya between 15.12.2022 and 10.04.2023 will compete in the races in Antalya's tourism centers Kemer, Antalya, Kundu, Belek, Side and Alanya. While the cycling teams are preparing for the racing season with the organized events, they will make a great contribution to the promotion of Turkey and the tourism economy. Most of these teams are planning to come to Turkey again for high altitude camps, especially in Kayseri-Erciyes, during the summer period.

There are teams that will camp for 5 months
Making a statement on the subject, President of Cycling Tourism Association Recep Şamil Yaşacan said that the 2023 winter season will be the period in which the most bicycle organizations are organized. Stating that the Turkish Winter Races Series will be the biggest international bicycle race series, Yaşacan said, “The athletes who will participate in the Olympics will come to our country and participate in these races and make their preparations during the 5-month camp period. This organization will both contribute to our country's economy and will also make our promotion."

It will spread throughout Turkey
Stating that the customer of bicycle tourism is more qualified and qualified than the customer of golf, Yaşacan said, “Our aim is to draw attention to our country with this race series and to ensure that our country gets a share of this cake with higher quality and qualified customers provided by bicycle tourism. Antalya is a pilot region for us. Starting from here, we aim to expand our organization to 7 regions of Turkey. It will be a Turkey-focused project, not just Antalya-focused, like golf. We have the capacity to organize these events in both summer and winter seasons and bring quality and qualified customers to the country. Cycling customers come to history, gastronomy, culture and health. Our country is very rich in terms of both these qualities and logistics. We need to bring these customers to our country through such competitions.”

“We Will Have No Rival In Cycling Tourism”
Saying, “These organizations will continue,” Yaşacan said, “We believe that we will not have competitors in bicycle tourism in 2-3 years, just as we do not have competitors in football tourism. Bicycle tourism will reach a commercial volume of 85 billion dollars in 2023 in Europe. There are some things we need to do as a country to get a serious share of this cake. In order for the athletes to stay comfortably with their equipment, the hotels in every region of the country must obtain the Bicycle Friendly Accommodation Facility certificate. All institutions of our state, including the highways, need to draw attention to this issue in all provinces, districts, towns and villages.”

 

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