patronlardunyasi.com Haberi
25.05.2026 07:54 •Güncelleme: 25.05.2026 08:17

What multi-million-dollar tourism campaigns and advertising films sometimes fail to achieve can be accomplished by a street cat in Galata. If what Aston Villa fans shared from Istanbul was not the Historic Peninsula but cats, then this is no longer merely about “urban romance”; it is about global brand value. Istanbul’s cats have now become the invisible actors of the tourism economy.

If Los Angeles in the United States is the “City of Angels,” we believe Istanbul, which is poised to become the City of Business Leaders, should now be called the “City of Cats.”

Now, we leave you with Fulya Soybaş’s article:

A CITY’S TRUE TOURISM AMBASSADORS
CAT-STANBUL

Have you noticed?

In recent years, Istanbul’s true tourism ambassadors have been neither the beauty of the Bosphorus, nor Galata, nor the seagulls, nor the ferries...

I’m sorry to say that the most successful tourism campaign ever created for Istanbul was not produced by the Ministry of Culture, nor by million-dollar advertising agencies.

Istanbul’s real stars are four-legged, whiskered, and remarkably indifferent: “Cats.”

When Aston Villa fans came to Istanbul, what did they share the most? Not the atmosphere, but the cats...

Some photographed a cat sleeping in front of the stands; others captured cats basking in the sun on the pavement.

In fact, this is the common instinct of tourists visiting Istanbul: Take a picture of the cat first.

Because in very few cities around the world are cats as comfortable as shop owners and as confident as neighborhood residents; they sit on café chairs, sleep in bookstore windows, and cool off in mosque courtyards. They behave as if they belong to the city.

Because they truly do.

Perhaps this is one of the small details that still makes Istanbul a livable city:

“Despite all its harshness, it can still make room for a cat.”