MICE on the rise inTurkey
Growing MICE endorsements by companies in Turkey makes it an ideal destination to host ACE of MICE Exhibition 2016. Exhibition Director Beyza Aksit tells about the preparations for the event to be held from March 16-18.
Q What kind of participation are you expecting at the 2016 exhibition?
We had 269 Exhibitors, 656 Hosted Buyers and 11,687 Visitors at AME 2015. For the next year we are still in contact with convention bureaus and MICE companies all over the world in order to increase this number. We expect 330 Exhibitors, 300 International Buyers and more than 300 local Hosted Buyers from associations and corporate companies.
Q What is the focus of the exhibition?
Our aim is to bring together MICE industry from Turkey and the world. We would like to show the MICE potential in Turkey to the international market as ACE of MICE Exhibition is a unique event in our country.
Q Tell us about the MICE market in Turkey?
There are 1,300 hotels with meeting facilities and event venues, 1,130 event management companies, 1,890 service providers in
Turkey for now. According to Turkish MICE Industry Survey, which was released at AME 2015 in February by Tourism Media Group, 29.3 per cent of the attendees from Meeting and Event Management companies said their annual MICE endorsement is between one to five million euros and 20 per cent of the companies have five million euros endorsement. About 3.8 per cent of the companies have less than 50,000 endorsement. On the other hand, 22 per cent of the attendees from hotels and venues have MICE endorsement of 100,000 – 500,000 and 21 per cent have endorsement of 10,00,000 –
30,00,000. About 7.2 per cent of the companies have 10 million of endorsement. All these numbers show that the growing potential of MICE industry in Turkey is still in progress.
Q What are the latest trends in MICE market?
Mobile social event networking, multi-event App platforms, technological options for live events and hybrid meetings are so popular nowadays. In terms of sustainabilty trends, the green meetings are so preferable. Regarding destinations I can mention about Istanbul which became an excellent choice for events in recent years. Istanbul offers an unique opportunity to the attendees with direct flights, congress centers, event venues, hotel capacities which make it more attractive.
Q What kind of steps is the Turkish Govt taking to encourage MICE tourism into the country?
Turkish government supports convention bureas in Turkey such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya to make Turkey a wellknown destination through marketing activities.