Won Ik Lee, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Ankara, and his delegation visited Tunç Soyer, Mayor of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality in his office.

Mayor Tunç Soyer welcomed his guests at the door. Ambassador Won Ik Lee said he was happy to come to İzmir and see the Gulf of İzmir. He said that he came to Turkey from the second largest city of Korea, Busan and compared İzmir to Busan. Tunç Soyer, Mayor of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, said that he visited Busan many times before the Cittaslow works. They discussed issues related to the development of trade, tourism, and cultural relations between the two countries.

“I see Turkey as my second home”
Won Ik Lee said, “İzmir is a beautiful city. I took office in November last year. I wanted to see İzmir right away, but I could not come because of the pandemic. I see Turkey as my second home. İzmir is very important for me and my country.”  Ambassador Won Ik Lee said Korean tourists go to İstanbul or Cappadocia because they do not only come to Turkey for sea and beach, they show interest in historical areas because they want to learn something. The Ambassador said, “Koreans work hard. They can relieve the stress of the year in İzmir, which has heavenly bays. I invite them here especially to relax and have fun.”

“We are ready to support investors”
Tunç Soyer, Mayor of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, said that the people of İzmir have similar points to the Korean people and said, “We would like to introduce your culture to our people. Our people love each other very much. We can cooperate in the fields of culture and tourism.” Tunç Soyer stated that they are always ready to support investors who want to conduct business and trade in İzmir and said, “There is also a lot to be done in terms of tourism. Considering the good relations between our peoples, the number of tourists coming from Korea to İzmir is fairly low. We should attract more tourists.” Mayor Soyer also mentioned that İzmir was the world's first Cittaslow Metropolitan City. Also explaining Visitİzmir, a social media platform, Mayor Soyer said that users can comment on İzmir's touristic values and share their ideas with other users and like and add their own tourism points to their favourites via this application and asked the Ambassador to visit the website.