While Turkey secured its 6th position in the world welcoming more than 35 million visitors in 2013, the EMİTT Fair maintained its position as the world’s 5th largest tourism fair with 136,730 visitors. EMITT, the East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition, took place last month in Istanbul, Turkey. In it 18th edition, the event continued to climb to the top with new exhibition records, hosting 136,730 visitors – 63,230 being professional guests.
EMITT Fair Director, Hacer Aydın, called attention to the events role in promoting the country’s tourism and stated that the fair has been hosting tourism sector professionals and making sensational headlines for the last 18 years. She pointed out that while the number of tourists visiting Turkey were just 9 million with a mere revenue of $9 billion in 2000, figures from the period January to November 2013, showed a rise to 33 million tourists with an income of $24.5 billion – representing a 7% growth in 2013.

Aydın commented that although Turkey is one of the 6th in attracting tourists worldwide and a top tourist destination, it still does not rank among the top 10 with respect to tourism income. She added that EMITT 2014 placed intensive efforts in this direction and had assigned private lounges for both health and winter tourism sectors in order to attract international professionals interested in these tourism topics.

Aydın continued that the rise in tourism in Turkey ran parallel to the rise in business hotel capacity and air transportation figures. Furthermore, Aydın finalised by highlighting that there was also a massive explosion in the number of travel agents during the same period, with a rise from 4,354 in 2000 to 7,247 in 2013.

EMITT Exhibition: EMITT Exhibition was first held in year 1997 at Istanbul TUYAP Tepebasi Fair Center with the name Voyager – International Tourism and Holiday Exhibition. The Exhibition which was held with the name Voyager in 1998 grew very fast in its third year and it moved to TUYAP Beylikduzu in 1999, where it was held in 4 halls and a total area of 7000 m2. Since 1999, the exhibition is being held under the name of EMITT – Eastern Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition. EMITT Exhibition, which drew a lot of attention from regional countries and international tourism society, did not only grew in terms of number of countries that attend, number of stands or the area it is being held but also became to reflect the tourism sector in Turkey.
Bringing in many innovations, EMITT Exhibition has managed to be the 5th biggest tourism exhibition in Europe over 15 years. Being one of the significant exhibition organisations in the world, ITE Group PLC joined among the partners of Ekin Fuar A.S. in 2009.www.emittistanbul.com

ITE Group PLC organizes international exhibitions and conferences in fast moving and developing markets. The Group has 30 offices all around the world, and organizes more than 230 events in 17 countries every year. ITE Group PLC operates in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and India with its traveling exhibitions. (For more information www.ite-exhibitions.com, www.travel-exhibitions.com)