Turkey: Gastronomy summit offers plenty of dishes

By Diyar Guldogan and Burcu Calik

ANKARA (AA) - Gastronomy summit in the Turkish capital Ankara will provide visitors with plenty of dishes from all seven regions of Anatolia, according to the Travelexpo website.

The summit will be held between March 22 and 25 as part of Travelexpo's Third International Tourism Fair at the ATO Congresium.

During the four-day summit, visitors will attend conferences and workshops while also enjoying a wide range of Anatolian tastes.

Turkish chefs will try to break the Guinness World Record by making the biggest baklava in the world -- a traditional Turkish pastry dessert --, according to Travelexpo.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the summit on Thursday, Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Turkey had extensive knowledge on food culture.

"We need to bring this into the world tourism and make it a major source of interest for the world tourism," Kurtulmus added.

He said Turkey would host around 38 million tourists in 2018, adding: "Therefore, we need to increase our knowledge and service quality and offer these to our foreign friends and guests."