İbrahim Laleli / Antalya, July 29 () – In southern resort town of Antalya, rates of paragliding have increased by 10 percent, comparing to last year’s numbers, on the 2,365 meters-high Tahtalı Mountain, despite a 9 percent fall in the number of tourists coming to Antalya over the same period.
The Tahtalı Mountain in Kemer district of Antalya keep dragging paragliding enthusiasts to the town, offering a beautiful scenery while bringing them to the top of the mountain by a telfer.
The Escape Flying School, serving clients 20 different pilots, announced that in 2014 almost every month tourist take an interest on paragliding in their school, whenever the weather conditions allow. Having closed the last season with a number of 2,500 jumps, the flying school declared that the region’s attraction grows. The school targets to achieve the 2,800 jumps when closing this year’s season.
The number of tourists coming to Antalya has fallen down by 9 percent in the first six month of 2015, particularly after the economic crisis in Russia, the largest tourism market of Turkey. The number of tourists having visited Antalya by plane between January and June in 2014 had been registered as 4.55 million, while the number fell to 4.21 million this year.
According to one of the partners of Escape Flying School, Mehmet Dursun, the difference of paragliding in Tahtalı lies behind its unique position:
“Around the world, Tahtalı Mountain is the only place that paragliders can land to the zero point after jumping from 2,365 meters in height.”
Dursun also confirmed that their company assures an insurance policy of 500 thousand euros to their clients.
The paragliding dures thirty minutes and adventure lovers can jump 12 months a year, doesn’t matter if the peak point is snowy, according to Dursun.
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