Distinguished President, Distinguished Members of the Press, Distinguished Guests,
Allow me to start by expressing how pleased I am to be welcoming you, esteemed representatives of the media on global MICE industry in İstanbul.
A heartfelt welcome to each and every one of you, welcome to Turkey, welcome to our great city of İstanbul.
Throughout this four-day programme, you will have the chance of seeing İstanbul, its cultural sites and will have the opportunity to get to know closely Turkey’s MICE industry for conventions.
Allow me also to thank Mr. Şekib Avdagiç, the President of the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce, for his valuable efforts and endeavours to promote İstanbul. Thank you Mr. President for your kind hospitality.
Your trip will be a great opportunity for us to tell in detail to the global convention industry about the potential, capacity and opportunities İstanbul offers. Your participation means a lot to us and again thank you very much for your kind interest.
Distinguished Guests,
I know that you have a very busy programme. Yesterday, you were at the heart of İstanbul, in Beyoğlu and Galata.
I was pleased to hear that you visited the Galata Tower, which dates back to 5th century and has been the subject of many legends and stories, as well as its surrounding area and the culture and arts centres around it. Having visited this area, you should have got the gist of the potential İstanbul bears and what it has to offer in culture and arts.
I am very sure that you have started to feel that İstanbul has layers of civilizations.
You will be seeing other historical and cultural areas of İstanbul, as well as areas strategic for convention industry. And of course, you will be tasting the finest and tastiest delicacies of Turkish and Ottoman cuisine. I wish you memorable days in İstanbul.
Distinguished Guests,
We closed 2019 with a record of all times in terms of tourism revenue. Turkey received 51.7 million international visitors and reached an income of 34.5 billion USD.
By 2023, we aim at reaching 75 million international visitors and 65 billion USD revenue.
Tourism and travel industry in general are great contributors to the economy as well as to the other industries. This is the reason why our President named tourism as one of the strategic industries.
We, as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are working very hard to achieve our goals and take our tourism industry a step forward.
We believe as all the stakeholders of the tourism industry, we have done a very good teamwork.
However, our job is far from over.
We have bigger targets.
In order to achieve our goals, as the Ministry, we have been working on many projects and planning many new programs
Distinguished Guests,
Recent global and local trends in tourism, travel, lifestyles, ways of consumption, technological improvements are guiding our new policies.
Within this framework, as the Ministry, we carried out a very ambitious study entitled ‘2023 Tourism Strategy’. Our Minister shared this strategy with the public and tourism industry in all details.
Thanks to this strategy, our future initiatives and policies regarding convention, gastronomy, health, culture, cycling, adventure, faith, winter/ski, plateau/ecotourism, sports, education, congress, festivals and events tourism have become clear. We have materialised our road ahead in line with it.
Together with that, Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency have recently been established and became operational.
Shortly, achieving our goals by using our potential on diversified tourism is like a perfectly ripe fruit, ready to be picked.
Distinguished Guests,
Numerous investments have been carried out in the last 17 years mainly in Turkey. These investments have a remarkable contribution for development of tourism and convention industry. You will have the chance of seeing its major examples during these four days.
Our museums, spaces of exhibition and arts have been renovated both in İstanbul and around Turkey. Efforts and investments are under way to open new venues.
At this point, the Beyoğlu Cultural Route Project should never go unmentioned. The routeway starts from Galataport, continues with Galata Tower and Galata square, passes through İstiklal Street, Taksim Square and ends at Atatürk Cultural Center. Atatürk Cultural Center is our brand new project, which we believe will be the heart of culture and arts in İstanbul.
The historical peninsula, that includes Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet Mosque is already currently at the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Today, when visitors visit museums such as the museum of Troy in Çanakkale, museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara, Zeugma museum of Gaziantep, Archaeology museums of Mersin, they see a contemporary museology with fascinating designs. These places are only a few of the museums at one and a half our flight from İstanbul.
In addition, our state opera and ballet, state theatres, choirs and arts institutions organise festivals, concerts and authentic and classical performances throughout the year.
In order to be able to stage such performances at more modern venues, we are working on to finish the Atatürk Cultural Center in İstanbul, Presidential Symphony Orchestra Complex in Ankara. Once finished, these venues will be the arts and culture hubs both in their region and on country basis.
Distinguished Guests,
The 2018 report of International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) points out that Turkey ranks 52nd out of 117 countries with 55 meetings per year. On city basis, İstanbul ranks 84th among 465 cities with 33 meetings, Antalya ranks 225th with 12 meetings.
We, as the stakeholders of the industry, are always in search of ways to improve our current capacity and capabilities. In addition, we constantly search for ways to achieve our goals in the most practical and fastest way possible.
In the report of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) for 2018, our country was ranked 52nd among 117 countries with 55 meetings.
According to the intercity comparison, Istanbul ranked 84th in 465 cities with 33 meetings, and Antalya ranked 225th with 12 meetings.
As the partner of the industry, we are in a constant effort and search for how we can develop and determine our possibilities and capabilities over our current situation, how soon and in what way we will reach our goals.
Thus, as a country, we can ensure a continuous and sustainable development. Not only Turkey, ranked 18th in the world, but also Istanbul took its place in the top 10 in the rankings.
We strongly believe that we can catch up similar rankings. We did it and we can do it again.
Our newly established Turkey Tourism Promotion and Development Agency will also carry out projects for the convention industry.
Distinguished Guests,
We have a reaching area of 100 million people who can be potential participants in meetings, business and congresses as well as the institutions and organizations they are professionally connected to.
These people are in our special interest. Because they have both economically high purchasing power,education level and they have travel cultures.
The most important benefit is the fact that the events organized will provide cities with the potential for commercial vitality and bring along an urge to visit again.
Istanbul is a city where you can reach 41 countries in 3 hours flight and 66 countries in 5 hours flight. This is very important. From this distance, you can reach a market of 30 trillion USD, which is almost half of the total global trade with a population of about 1.6 billion people. In addition to these advantages, there is another important point that we should not forget: Congress is not just a tourism activity.
It is an indicator of a country’s level in all areas; from science to culture, medicine to technology It is also a catalyst of new international cooperation and interactions. Over 200 of our universities have 171.349 academicians who are scientifically active at these universities, and have prominent colleagues with whom they interact worldwide.
These academicians attend congresses, especially about medicine and technology, in our country and in Istanbul, locally and regionally.
Considering that 500 national and international congresses will be held in our country this year, we can see that our M.I.C.E. industry has proven itself in this sense in terms of ability and competence. For these reasons, we want to increase the share we get from the market, which has more than 100 million people and 13 thousand congresses per year. Because we are one of the few countries in the world in terms of congress infrastructure.
Istanbul is leading the way with its three big congress centers and high-tech unlimited meeting places within the hotels.
Antalya has made a great leap in the last 5-6 years with its warm climate, facilities, meeting opportunities and packages.
We have a big convention center in İzmir and it has everything to make its leap in MICE industry.
Other than these three big cities, which are traditional congress destinations, our cities such as Nevşehir, Gaziantep and Bursa are trying to improve themselves in the congress industry and are trying to find a place for them with the investments they make among the congress destinations.
So, do we have obstacles in front of us?
We do not think so...
As of yet, we have high-capacity airports like Istanbul New Airport that hosts approximately 52 million passengers and have close to total 330,000 flight which 247,000 of these are international which is one of the world's largest airports.
As of 2019, we have Turkish Airlines, which is a world brand, our pride, our flag carrier airline, which has been flying to 318 cities in 126 countries and expanding its flight network day by day.
As of 2020, we have 4780 tourism facilities, with a total capacity of 1,176,536 beds, 713 of which are in Istanbul, with a bed capacity of 144,612, which have been authorized by our Ministry.
We have meeting facilities led by our three major congress centers in Istanbul.
We have educated human resources who have secondary and higher education graduates.
We have history, culture and gastronomy in our lands that have hosted civilizations for thousands of years.
Above all, we have Istanbul, the capital of culture, Antalya, the star of the Mediterranean, Izmir, Nevsehir, Gaziantep, Bursa and other cities.
Distinguished Guests,
I hope we will be providing you with enough information regarding our country and İstanbul throughout your stay. As Turkey, our contribution in the future to the global MICE industry will be remarkable.
In concluding my remarks, I would like to welcome once again each and every one of you to Turkey. My deep respects to you all.