Tourists who visit Van Castle in summer become a source of livelihood for the citizens living around the castle. Primary school students tell the history of Van Castle in Kurdish, Turkish, Japanese and English, which they read in books and listen to from local guides.

Children who have learned from the local guides about the history of the Van Castle, transfer the information in four languages to the local and foreign tourists and earn pin money.  At the same time, the children, who are first cousins, say that Van Castle is a small source of income and that they come to the castle at weekends and summer holidays, where they are earning money on foreign tourists for some information about the history of the castle.

“We learned foreign languages ​​from tourism guides”

Taner Sona, a 5th grade student who tells that tourists are interested in them, said they learned the history of Van Castle by listening to the tourist guides.

Sona said, “After school we come back to Van Castle and tell history to the tourists. The tourists are very interested in us, so they give us money. We help tourists from Iran, Japan and England. We have learned those foreign languages from tourist guides and we have memorized what they said. Then we tell the foreign tourists about the history of the Van Castle and make money. My parents tell us to pay attention when going to the hill. My dad allows me to come here, but my mother does not allow.”

On the other hand, there has also been a significant increase in the number of tourists coming to Van since 2008. The city has attracted 5.5 million tourists in the last eight years. In the past year, Van city welcomed more than one million domestic and foreign tourists. (Yılmaz Sönmez - ILKHA)