Turkish tourism fair targets regional leadership

Ekin Fuar A.Ş. General Manager Hacer Aydın
The East Mediterranean International Travel & Tourism Exhibition, or EMITT, the world’s sixth largest and Turkey’s biggest tourism fair, is aiming for regional leadership among global tourism fairs.
The exhibition has already received participants from around 60 countries.
The officials expect the fair, to be held Feb. 13 through 15, to register its highest number of participants in 2011.
Speaking to Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, Ekin Fuar A.Ş. General Manager Hacer Aydın said almost all of the 10 halls rented at the TÜYAP complex, owned by TÜYAP Fairs Inc., were already occupied by participants.
She said the exhibition was supported by the Turkish Hotel Federation, or TÜROFED, the Turkish Tourism Investors Association, or TYD, and the Tourism and Culture Ministry. “This year the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization, or KOSGEB, is among our supporters and we are hoping to boost our participants even further by virtue of this new addition.”
Aydın said the exhibition had registered 20 percent growth in the last two years and although their growth target for 2010 was 8 percent, they surpassed this figure by 2 percent. “Other regional fairs, however, are still trying to recover the figures of two years ago.”
Also speaking to the Daily News, Ekin Group Chairman Halim Bulutoğlu said the fundamental reason a tourism fair in a country could grow was an increase in the supply and demand of a country’s tourism sector.
Bulutoğlu said only providing the supply did not suffice for sustainable growth and the countries visiting the EMITT exhibition all aimed to attract tourists to their own countries.
He also said Turkey had registered remarkable growth in out-going tourists, at an average of 25 percent in the previous two years, and he expected the figure to be around 40 percent for 2010. He said the increased number of out-going tourists created demand in Turkey as a market that, he said, was a significant factor affecting EMITT’s growth. Tuesday, January 11, 2011
NURDAN BOZKURT
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News