EMITT 2016: Turkish Tourism Aims for Success Despite Challenges

EMITT 2016 ribbon cutting ceremony.

“We are used to fighting challenges… Crises are not obstacles to Turkey but triggers”, Hacer Aydin, ITE Turkey Tourism & Travel & Fashion Group Director, said during the opening ceremony of the East Mediterranean Tourism and Travel Exhibition – EMITT on Thursday.

Hacer Aydin, ITE Turkey Tourism & Travel & Fashion Group Director.

Taking place at the Tuyap Fair and Congress Center in Istanbul, the EMITT expo celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

“2015 was a very difficult year and we predict that this year will be even more difficult”, Ms Aydin said referring to challenges in Turkey.

Turkey’s $30 billion-per-year tourism industry is expected to suffer a setback this year following last year’s terrorist attacks, strained relations with Russia and the January 12 bombing in Istanbul that took the lives of 10 tourists.

However, Ms Aydin aimed to pass a positive message for the Turkish travel market.

“Twenty years ago Turkey was not among top tourism destinations and now it is the sixth country worldwide receiving the highest number of tourists and EMITT is the fifth top expo in its field”, she said.

This year, the exhibition brings together 4,500 companies companies, organizations and resorts from around 70 countries in 11 halls equaling to total exhibition space of 70 thousand square meters.

In addition to the participation of tourism destinations of countries including Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia -Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Italy, Greece, Korea, Maldives, Panama, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA and Vietnam, visitors at EMITT 2016 will be introduced to over 200 tourism destinations from 81 cities in Turkey.

EMITT 2016 will run until January 31.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) is a media partner to EMITT 2016.