23.10.2026 17:55
Mohammed Salah's transfer to Trabzonspor has also brought an influx of tourists to the city. While the number of Egyptian tourists who say they heard of Trabzon thanks to Salah is increasing, charter flights between Cairo and Trabzon and packages including plane tickets, hotel accommodation, and match tickets are drawing great interest. The stone on which Salah posed in the Kurtdere plateau is also attracting a flood of visitors.
When Mohammed Salah announced at the end of last season that he would leave Liverpool, there were quite a few people who thought his new destination might be in the Arabian Peninsula. Some Arab football fans, perhaps dreaming of watching him in a stadium in their country, are today boarding planes to Trabzon. Salah, unquestionably the biggest transfer in the club's history, has scored eight goals in his eight Süper Lig matches so far this year.
In Europe, there are various claims about how far he can carry Trabzon in the Conference League too. In the city of Trabzon, not only his on-field but also his off-field actions are followed with great interest. Only a player of his caliber could leave such a mark on a city.
As we walk through the city's streets, a tourist wearing a Mo Salah jersey catches our attention. Yana Song says the only reason she came from China to Trabzon was to buy a Mohammed Salah jersey. Song is a very devoted fan of the Egyptian footballer.
Along with the Liverpool jersey she is wearing, she is holding a Trabzonspor jersey in her hand. “He was the king of Liverpool; I hope he will become the king of Trabzon, and even of Turkey,” she says. Chinese Song is just one of the tourists Salah has brought to Trabzon. Both tourism data and the local tradespeople we spoke to indicate an increase in the number of Egyptian tourists.
THEY HEARD OF TRABZON THANKS TO SALAH The group of fans who came from Egypt for the Trabzonspor-Beşiktaş match on October 19 received wide coverage in the media. We chat at the airport with a group of Egyptians waiting in the check-in queue to return to Cairo.
Nisrin İbrahim, who works as an interpreter, says that, like almost all the Egyptians we spoke to, she heard of Trabzon for the first time thanks to Mohammed Salah. “All Egyptians are fans of him. We love him very much. When we heard he chose Trabzon, we were very curious. We said, ‘If Salah made this decision, he must know something.’ We thought we absolutely had to see Trabzon, and we came. We had a wonderful holiday. We went to Uzungöl and Hamsiköy. We are very sad to be leaving.”
Egyptian tourists say they are especially captivated by the city's nature and greenery. Ahmad Azi, the owner of a pharmaceutical company, says: “This place is like Switzerland, but we can find halal food. The people are very similar to us. Our only difference is that we stay up until morning, while here they go to bed early.”
Şaime Abdelfateh, a software quality assurance engineer, says, “I will definitely come again and bring my children, my mother and father, my whole family,” and bursts into laughter as she says that next time she will definitely go up to the plateau and visit the Mohammed Salah rock as well.
MO SALAH ROCK CRAZE The “Salah Plateau” craze began when the Egyptian footballer shared a photo on his social media account posing on a rock. It soon emerged that the photo was taken at Kurtdere plateau, located 60 km from the city at an altitude of 2,000 meters, and an influx of visitors to the area began. After a 90-minute journey, we reach the famous plateau, 900 meters above the world-famous Sümela Monastery in the Maçka district.
This is actually a plateau connected to the province of Gümüşhane, but it is mostly used by people from Trabzon. It is so high that there is no trace here of the Black Sea's dense trees. On the green grass, where the region's native vargit flowers gleam white, there are cows grazing here and there and picnickers enjoying the beautiful weather.
Among those we met at the plateau was primary school student Alisa Naz Demircioğlu, wearing the Mo Salah jersey she asked her father for as a birthday gift. “I love Salah very much. Because today is my birthday, I wanted to come to this plateau. I will sit on the rock he sat on and have my photo taken. I am very happy,” she says.
Halil Ercelep, who says his ancestors have been residents of this plateau for 550 years, is pleased with the interest: “Thank God, Mohammed Salah has brought cheer here; the plateaus have become more beautiful. Crowds of people come and go; how nice, we even get to know young people we have never met.” His wife, Fatma Ercelep, feels the same: “He is a citizen just like us; I hope he brings success and gets Trabzonspor back on its feet,” she says, leading with her championship wishes. Turgut Kaplan, who lives on the upper plateau and introduces himself as an “amateur kemençe player,” plays a piece on his kemençe and then jokes with the Erceleps: “This plateau has become the Salahs' plateau.” On the way back, when we open the navigation, we notice that our location is marked as “Salah Plateau.”
STRONG INTEREST IN CAIRO-TRABZON FLIGHTS Amr Riyad, an Egyptian travel agency owner who has worked in the tourism sector for 20 years, says that the newly launched charter flights between Trabzon and Cairo, Egypt's capital, have attracted great interest along with the Salah transfer.
He mentions that there is interest in the matches too: “People kept asking us how they could watch Salah's match. So we also created match packages; we also sell packages including plane tickets, hotel and match tickets.”
“Salah rock” tourism has also had a positive impact. So much so that Riyad says Trabzon stays planned for three days sometimes extend to three and a half days with the plateau visit.