24 countries gather for MICE
With 750 hosted buyers from around the world, ACE of M.I.C.E. exhibition inTurkey this March attracted 318 companies from 24 countries.The buyers included a mix of corporates and agents and ensured intense business collaborations.
Congress, meeting and event sector’s largest international gathering, the ACE of M.I.C.E. exhibition was held for the third consecutive year in Istanbul this March. 318 companies from 24 countries participated in the exhibition this year and thousands of trade visitors filled the exhibition area and attended various seminars and panels discussions.
Volkan Ataman, General Manager, Tourism Media Group and the organiser of the event mentioned that MICE industry, which has a very important market share in the world economy, continues to grow in Turkey every year. He added, “ACE of M.I.C.E. exhibition is one of the biggest gatherings of the global MICE industry and is more powerful and equipped this year. This year there are 318 attendees from 24 countries, this means an 18 per cent growth over last year. In 2015, we hosted 11,687 guests and this year we’re expecting more than 15,000 professional guests. 200 for- eign hosted buyers from 39 countries and 400 corporate hosted buyers from local market and 150 visitor hosted buyers attended our exhibition and in total 750 hosted buyers created intense business collaboration with B2B meetings. Within the exhibi- tion, in 25 different sessions, 62 speakers contributed to the educational development of the sector. Our exhibition continues its road to become the leader exhibition of world MICE industry.”
While the exhibition provided the perfect platform to grow this industry and the strong hosted buyer programme ensured the success of the show, an underlying terror threat in Turkey was also addressed during the conference.
“Terror which removes the international travel freedom is not only against Turkey, it is against humanity. We need moral as a sector and banks need to be very understanding because we need government support at MICE. When hotel reservations are full, congress rooms must not stay empty,” says Basaran Ulusoy, President, TÜRSAB. Tourism was highlighted as a facilitator to eradicate terrorism and help the country and economy return to its full glory.