İzmir, the venue to solve problems

Deniz Sipahi

Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) head Başaran Ulusoy has both apologized and thanked. What he apologized for was that he strongly believed İzmir Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu would not be able to build Fuar İzmir alone only by the means of the municipality. Fuar İzmir opened on March 25, 2015, as a modern and new fair center at the city known as the “city of fairs.”

Actually, the İzmir Fair became Turkey’s biggest and it also became one of the few centers in Europe. The thank you part was on behalf of the tourism sector. 

First of all, Travel Turkey, a tourism fair and congress, is growing each year. This is important because it is quite meaningful that at a time when the tourism sector is suffering, tourism executives and investors come together to generate solutions and the venue they are doing it in is in İzmir. 

It has also been understood that fairs are still one of the most important locomotives of a city. In past years, many hotels have been opened in İzmir and figures show that despite all the odds, tourism sector is still happy and hopeful.  

Problems will eventually be solved; one has to focus beyond that… İzmir is one of those cities that prepares for the future… For this reason, the fact that Fuar İzmir is successful and also that it draws interest of the sector and support from the city is rather significant. 

Now, next is congress tourism… It is now time to support this fair organizing with congresses. İzmir needs good congress centers. I think it would be beneficial if they were plenty and huge. 

Think of İzmir as a center; then you can market the congress tourism for a wide region including the districts Kuşadası, Çeşme, Ayvalık and Foça. Alternatives could be offered prior to and after the congress. Participants can stay in İzmir; if they wish they can have a long weekend or they can take themselves to the Aegean coast. 

Quality tourism and value added tourism movements occur like this. İzmir and its vicinities are perfectly suitable to all the criteria that I have mentioned. 

An outside world 

My word is for the “freshwater intellectuals” who avoid swimming in deep, salty and dangerous waters. I mean those who sit at their computers and write epic stories on Facebook, who blend criticism with insult, who claim they are democrats but easily convert into a soft authoritarian mood… 

Guys, are you always negative? Do you always see the empty half of the glass? Do you always form sentences that end with a “but?” Do you always get up from the wrong side of the bed? Are you always unhappy? Maybe you should sometimes look into the mirror and ask yourselves whether you are happy with the face you see there.  

Guys, life does not go on in Facebook or Twitter. 

Go out a little bit; there is another world outside.
 
Question and answer 

Is it a problem that football teams from İzmir are not in the Super League? Yes, it is a problem. 

It is an inconvenience that a city like İzmir cannot benefit from the driving power of sports. 

Well, is it only the politicians who have an answer to that? The part that concerns the politicians is the infrastructure. 

It is sad and it is a shame that İzmir does not have a proper stadium at the standards of the UEFA. 

It is only a dream to expect success before solving this problem. But another segment that shares the blame is club executives. 

To be frank, they have managed our clubs poorly. As a matter of fact, very poorly… 

We have to find good executives just as much as we need a stadium.