Turkish tourism in spotlight as co-host of ITB fair
Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009
The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is attending the world’s largest travel and trade fair, the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin, which begins today.
With the slogan “The perfect holiday starts here,” the fair offers an excellent opportunity for travel industry representatives to come together. With 11,147 exhibitors, comprising 8,540 foreign and 2,607 German parties, ITB Berlin 2009 is being held on 160,000 square meters of floor space at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. Almost 180,000 visitors have already registered to attend the fair, which runs through March 15. In order to make the fair as convenient as possible for visitors, organizers have arranged market segments thematically so visitors will have no problem finding their way within the enormous fair space. Market segments that are expected to be particularly popular include among others culture tourism, travel technology, health tourism and cruises.
With participants coming from developed, developing and underdeveloped countries, this year’s fair rivals the United Nations with its range of exhibitors, who have traveled to Berlin from 180 countries. What began as a very modest overseas-import trade show in 1966 is now the world’s leading gathering of its kind. With a huge number of exhibitors and visitors, the German capital’s travel fair draws the attention of professionals from all sectors within the tourism and travel industry worldwide. Despite the adverse effects of the ongoing global financial crisis and the resulting drop in demand in every sector, a diverse array of businesses, including but not limited to, tour operators, booking engines, airlines, hotels and car rental companies, will all try to market their services to fair attendees.
This year’s fair is expected to host more fierce competition among exhibitors as a result of the crisis, which has severely hit the tourism industry worldwide.
“[Today], companies’ power of resilience will be on the table, not the services they provide or their plans for expansion. Turkey is ahead of those coming to Berlin with hope this year because she is the only country that managed to maintain 2007 figures last year. Turkey is the country in which countless European tour operators and airline companies as well as more than 50,000 travel agencies in 40 countries invest their hopes,” said Hüseyin Baraner, the head of the European-Turkish Tourism Council.
US President Barack Obama’s announced visit to Turkey is expected to boost demand in the Turkish tourism industry. Expressing satisfaction about Obama’s decision to travel to Turkey so early in his presidency, Baraner said the president’s decision has had a stimulating effect on Turkish exhibitors who are attending the fair. ”We particularly expect this decision to revive travel to İstanbul and Cappadocia,” he added.
Turkey is the co-host of the event this year as part of an initiative taken by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Turkey’s stand will cover an area of 2,558 square meters, and its promotions this year will be based on regional presentations.
source: Today’s Zaman
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