ATF23 Suited Well the 100th Anniversary of our Republic

*The 5th Antalya Tourism Fair broke a new record with 23,607 professional visitors from 58 countries in two days.

** ATF23, which was established by GMT Fuarcılık on an area of 25,000 square metres on 26-27 October this year, brought together 680 tourism brands in 270 stands.

*** Antalya Tourism Fair, which is the only fair in the world that can bring together almost all of Turkey’s source markets under one roof simultaneously, proved once again that it is the most productive tourism fair of Turkey and the Mediterranean with its record attendance and record number of meetings in two days.

Antalya Tourism Fair opened its doors to the world tourism professionals and stakeholders with great enthusiasm for the fifth time on 26 October this year. In the opening speeches of ATF23, the heart of tourism; the development of Turkish tourism, the contributions and vision of Antalya Tourism Fair to the tourism sector were emphasised.

The fair was opened by Fikri Ataoğlu (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Environment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) , Hulusi Şahin (Governor of Antalya), Dr. Ahmet Savaşan (Deputy of Northern Cyprus ), Mustafa Gürbüz  (Deputy General Manager of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality), Muratpaşa Mayor Ümit Uysal, Chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) Firuz Bağlıkaya, Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO) Vice President Fatih Kabadayı, Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers and Operators Association (AKTOB) President Kaan Kaşif Kavaloğlu, TÜRSAB Mediterranean BTK President Rıza Perçin and Chairman  of GMT Fuarcılık Selçuk Meral.

FİKRİ ATAOĞLU: ATF IS A VERY RICH FAIR WITH ITS DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND DIFFERENT CONCEPTS

Fikri Ataoğlu, Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Environment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus said in his speech at the Opening Ceremony of ATF23 : “It is very important for all of us that this fair provides opportunities to establish new collaborations and strengthen existing relationships. I saw all the friends during the entrance and I was as happy as they were. I hope that these bilateral relations will increase in the coming period. I wish that the negotiations to be held in our fair will be carried to a more advanced dimension. It is pleasing for me to see how rich the fair is today and that different countries and different concepts are among us.”

HULUSİ ŞAHİN: IT IS VERY VALUABLE THAT THIS FAIR IS BEING HELD IN ANTALYA

Antalya Governor Hulusi Şahin who Emphasising the importance of Antalya Tourism Fair for the city in his speech, said: “Where there is tourism and trade, prejudices are broken and the seeds of peace are sown. Tourism activities are very valuable for a more peaceful world. I think that this fair is very valuable from this perspective. I was very surprised that it has only been held for 5 years, and  precious Selçuk Meral made an explanation for this. Tourism is not only about agencies and hotels, it is a very large operation. It is very important to bring these actors together. Tourism is a very dynamic sector, and Antalya Tourism Fair is very valuable in terms of seeing new trends. It is also very valuable that this fair is held in Antalya. Antalya is a very beautiful city, we can say that it is a city of tourism, history, culture, agriculture and gastronomy. Not only the sea, but all kinds of tourism activities can be carried out in this city. We are here today. My request from you is to carry out a sustainable activity. Tourism consisting only of sea and sand does not satisfy us anymore. Antalya has mountains and plains. There is a very deep-rooted Turkmen nomad culture, let’s discover them and incorporate them into our tourism activities.”

FİRUZ BAĞLIKAYA: ATF PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE SUCCESS OF TURKISH TOURISM

TÜRSAB Chairman Firuz Bağlıkaya started his speech by expressing his happiness to be organising ATF for the fifth time in Antalya, which he defined as one of the most important brand destinations of Turkey in the world, continued his speech :

“While world tourism is growing rapidly, each of us, as sector representatives, is working to ensure that our country gets more share from this growth. We have adopted Atatürk’s words, ‘We founded the Republic, you are the ones who will keep it alive and raise it’ as a principle for ourselves. It is of great importance that we develop economically in order to carry and transfer this trust in the best way. Tourism is the sector where we have the highest competitive power with the world. This success is the result of the devoted work of our sector representatives. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this succes. ATF undertakes an important mission to ensure that this success continues to increase.Tourism is important for world peace with its structure that enables people from different languages, religions and races to get to know each other. In this respect, every tourism organisation also assumes the responsibility of a peace ambassador.  Tourism is the olive tree of our country. We tourism professionals continue to contribute to our country’s economy in every situation. We will work non-stop in the relentless competition in world tourism. With these thoughts, I wish Antalya Tourism Fair to be auspicious.”

KAVALOGLU: ATF IS THE APPLE OF OUR EYE

AKTOB President Kaan Kaşif Kavaloğlu started his speech by saying; “Welcome to ATF, which we managed to organise for the fifth time” and added; “As AKTOB and TÜROFED, I would like to emphasise that this fair, which has been successfully organised in Antalya, especially in this difficult period, is the apple of our eye. I congratulate Selçuk Meral and his team for organising this fair even in the pandemic, when we are in a psychologically difficult situation. It is very valuable for us that this fair has grown so much as well as being held for the fifth time.”

THE MOST PRODUCTIVE TOURISM FAIR IN TURKEY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

The Antalya Tourism Fair, which attracted great interest for two days from the opening to the closing of the fair, was attended by important brands of the travel industry from Turkey and the world. Representatives of exhibitors, guest agencies invited from abroad and tourism stakeholders visiting the fair opened the doors of 2024 with the meetings they held during the fair. Thanks to the ATF23 mobile application and Hosted Buyer appointment system, exhibitors and visitors of the fair had the opportunity to make the most efficient use of every minute for two days.

100% TOURISM WAS DISCUSSED FOR 2000 MINUTES ON 6 DIFFERENT STAGES FOR 2 DAYS

On the six stages of ATF23, ‘100% Tourism’ was discussed for approximately 2000 minutes with the participation of 97 speakers on 49 topics under 23 main headings. This year, Antalya Tourism Fair, where every issue concerning the tourism industry was discussed in the most detailed manner by the experts of that subject, has also gained the quality of a ‘tourism summit’ for the sector preparing for 2024. When evaluated among the fairs in Turkey, ATF23 has raised the bar considerably with its sessions, speakers and total panel duration.

SELÇUK MERAL: RECORD ATTENDANCE, RECORD NUMBER OF MEETINGS

Antalya Tourism Fair Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors Selçuk Meral said the following in his evaluation after the fair:

“For the fifth time, Antalya Tourism Fair made history by opening its doors to professionals from almost all of Turkey’s source markets. In two days, there was a record attendance to ATF23 with nearly 25 thousand professional visitors from nearly sixty countries. The record number of meetings proved that fair organisation can be very productive. He refuted the thesis that ‘fairs used to be important, but not anymore’ on behalf of ATF. Contracts that have not been realised at fairs for a long time came to the agenda again with Antalya Tourism Fair. Exhibitors and visitors made agreements and concretised their negotiations in one-to-one business meetings. ATF, which is the only fair in the world that brings together almost all markets related to Turkey, has become a direct business meeting, a business co-operation fair with a wider area and a much larger participation this year. Tourism professional exhibitors and visitors spent two days trying to utilise every minute for the development of Turkish tourism and the growth of their business volumes. Both the ATF23 application and our other one-to-one business meeting system worked very actively. Thus, the Antalya Tourism Fair was a one hundred per cent success, reaching the number of meetings that encouraged the targeted meetings and directly added value to the business.”

“OTHER DESTINATIONS WILL COME TO OFFER THEIR OWN PRODUCTS”

“Antalya Tourism Fair, as it was held on 26-27 October, demonstrated our claim as a country, a city and a tourism market in the eyes of the world. ATF23 has emerged as a very important product not only for the Turkish market but also for the world tourism sector as a brand that successfully represents many components. As a tourism product in itself, this brand has managed to become one of the important values of our country.

As a result of the impressions we have gained during the fair; ATF will not only develop the tourism activities of Turkey and Turkish tourists in the coming period. Because the existing operators and agencies do not only sell to the Turkish market. They have developed products for all tourism destinations of the world and they are carrying out sales processes. In the coming years, we anticipate that we will start to receive very high numbers of visits from other countries that want to develop their own tourism movements.  Tourism professionals from other countries will also want to come together with exhibitors and visitors here to attract tourists to their countries.”

“OUR GOAL IS TO BE THE MEETING POINT OF THE WORLD TOURISM INDUSTRY”

“We are happy to have successfully organised ATF23. We are proud of the praise we have received about the point the fair has reached in five years. We have been saying for a long time that we are the most productive tourism fair in Turkey and the Mediterranean. Now we are very happy to hear this from tourism professionals with ATF experience. Positive feedbacks give us enthusiasm to do better. Our goal has been to facilitate the processes related to tourism product marketing and to bring professionals together since the first day. Our goal for the future is to make ATF the most efficient meeting point of the world tourism industry. We have already started our work on this subject and we will start promoting ATF24 soon.”

ATF23 IN NUMBERS:

• ATF23 received 23,607 professional visits from 58 countries in 2 days.

(Germany, Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Algeria, Algeria, Czechia, China, Armenia, Estonia, France, Georgia, Croatia, India, India, Netherlands, Iraq, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Spain, Israel, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Kingdom, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Lithuania, Lebanon, Hungary, Macedonia, Malta, Egypt, Moldova, Nepal, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, Jordan, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, Sweden, Switzerland)

• Established on an area of 25,000 square metres, ATF23 brought together a total of 680 brands under one roof with 270 exhibitors and 410 sub-exhibitors.

• On six stages of ATF23, ‘100% Tourism’ was discussed for approximately 2000 minutes with the participation of 97 speakers on 49 topics under 23 main headings.

(gmTalks, ATF-Tech Stage, ATF-Communication Stage, Tour Guide Corner, HR – Human Resources Stage, Presidents Stage)