A. Sinan İnan the General Manager of Antalya Convention Bureau (ACB) declared the 2012 activities of convention bureau. İnan mentioned that ACB had an intense activity year in year 2012, just like in year 2011. Besides the Antalya Convention Bureau participated in important tourism expositions such as EMITT-İstanbul, ITB-Berlin, Hetex & Sport Turkey-Antalya and WTM-Londra in year 2012, İnan mentioned that bureau attended in all fairs seen as important ones in MICE segment such as CONFEX London, GIBTM Abu Dhabi, IMEX Frankfurt, IMEX America ve EIBTM Barcelona expositions.
İnan expressed that congress tourism in Antalya started to reach important sizes in recent years. İnan continued as “ Antalya improves its position in competitive environment in terms of main elements of MICE sector such as meeting halls, accommodation capacity and transportation infrastructure. In year 2012, 69 international congresses were organized in Antalya. The same number was 56 for year 2011; it means that the congress sector grew by rate of 25% in 2012. Antalya targets the highest growth rate in international environment in year 2014. It will make Antalya go further in congress sector, because Antalya will host 53rd General Assembly of ICCA in year 2014”.
The general manager of ACB expressed that they keep working for bringing more congresses to Antalya as Antalya Congress Bureau, and that there will be new opportunities for extending the tourism to 12 months and creating the brand value of Antalya in congress and meeting sector with EXPO 2016 Antalya after ICCA 2014, IAEE 2015(International Energy Economy Congress). İnan continued as “According to 2012 data of Antalya Congress Bureau, the most frequent months were between September and April in terms of congress and meeting organizations. In this sense, it important to gain maximum profit from tourism income by enlarging the range of tourisms in Antalya. The biggest advantage of Antalya in congress tourism is its high-level service quality, besides its different price opportunities for different client classes. When considering the statistics of Antalya Convention Bureau Belek region takes place on the top in congress and meeting sector.
When we consider the numbers of participants, more than 25,000 participants came in year 2012 internationally. During 2011, 156 congresses were organized in Antalya, 56 international and 100 national. In year 2012, Antalya hosted 165 congresses, 69 international and 96 national. The seminars and dealers meetings are not included in that data.
The most frequent congress topic was medicine in years 2011 and 2012. Totally 68,000 delegates participated in international and national organizations in year 2012.” In addition to those, İnan expressed that Antalya Convention Bureau should gain more support and should work with bigger budgets. Sinan İnan mentioned that the ABTA General Assembly was organized in Belek-Antalya in October 2012 after the 1.5 years of work of Promotion Directorate of Culture and Tourism Ministry and London Tourism Agency and Antalya Congress Bureau, and that its contributions will start to be seen in England Market after next year.