For decades, Turkish tourism has leaned on the appeal of sea, sand and sun to attract Western tourists in search of cheap, all-inclusive holidays on beautiful beaches.

With Western tourism at a low point for the last three years due to terrorist attacks, the 2016 coup attempt and political crises with Western countries, leaders in the tourism industry and the government are exploring what can be done to reverse the sharp decline in Turkey’s tourism revenues.

The Tourism Council, made up of tourism executives, academics and government officials, met in Ankara Nov. 1-3, with the aim of drawing a road map for the future of tourism. The two-day meeting itself is newsworthy, as the council comes together for the third time after a lapse of 15 years. In a move to mark the importance of the event, the opening speech was made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself, who drew attention to the need to diversify the tourism sector and to the role of gastronomy.

For the first time, the Tourism Council included a separate commission for gastronomy. One solid outcome was to create an umbrella gastronomy organization under the roof of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to coordinate the various related studies, events, organizations, festivals and other activities.