The quaint little village of Uzumlu was a hive of excitement last Friday when a 180 strong production team from China descended. The normally sleepy village streets, and the Oceanwide Properties Uzumlu office, was chosen as a location for the filming of a new, celebrity-filled Chinese treasure hunt TV show.
The filming co-insides with the start of “Turkey Year” in China.
The filming of this Chinese show co-insides with the start of “Turkey Tourism Year” in China. The declaration of 2018 as “Turkey Year” in China is part of an on-going campaign expected to attract over 1 million Chinese tourists to Turkey this year. According to the Tourism Ministry, Italy, Switzerland and France are normally preferred European destinations for the Chinese, Turkey has escaped their radar as the country hasn’t been sufficiently promoted in China until recently. They are hoping that a series of TV and media campaigns promoting Turkey over the past 12 months will result in higher tourist numbers. This publicity, alongside the filming of popular shows featuring Chinese celebrities filmed in Turkey, is hoped to boost visitors significantly.
Locals fill the streets of Uzumlu fascinated by the filming of “24 Hours”
With the exception of perhaps the yearly Mushroom Festival, Uzumlu has never seen so many visitors, and especially so many foreigners all running around with cameras, booms and microphones! From early Friday the production team from China Zhejiang TV were present, donning waterproof plastic macs and dodging the drizzle and showers. The show could be likened most to ‘Survivor’, and involves eight young celebrities running around the streets finding answers to clues given on cards. The main characters, dressed in trenchcoats, are under a time constraint to solve problems given by people locally. Our Uzumlu office, conveniently located in the heart of Uzumlu opposite the village mosque, was the setting for one of the clues given by Ramazan Yoruk, dressed in traditional Yoruk attire. Other clues were spread around the village at various points.
Thankfully the bad weather let up mid-afternoon to allow filming to take place. The streets at that point were cornered off and the locals all sat drinking cay, chatting and busily taking in the excitement as the filming took place. Local kids played and ran after the celebrities as they ran through the streets – it was quite a sight!
“24 Hours” caused quite a stir around Fethiye.
Uzumlu marked the final days filming for the Zhejiang production team after 3 long days in the Fethiye area. Earlier in the week Oludeniz, Gocek, Central Fethiye and Paspatur were all used as locations for the show. Speaking to the team in our office, all seemed very taken with Fethiye commenting that the area was ‘beautiful’ and ‘interesting’. All that we spoke to said that they were very taken with Turkey and would gladly recommend visiting the country to their friends and family. Let’s now hope now that the show, when it is aired early summer, does indeed help boost tourist numbers to the area.
“Oceanwide Properties were honoured to be approached to help with the Chinese Zhejiang production and we are keen to help with other events in the future. I hope that the filming of 24 Hours does help boost Chinese tourism in Turkey and in Fethiye, it’s great that the area is now appealing to a more diverse visitor and investor”, says Suleyman Akbay, MD of Oceanwide Properties.
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