Trade chamber to turn Ankara into hub for international conventions

Serkan Demirtaş - serkan.demirtas@hdn.com.tr ANKARA

The Turkish capital is soon to become one of the leading centers for international conferences and conventions, the head of the Ankara Trade Chamber has said, outlining their objectives to let Ankara receive its piece of the share of the $400 billion-worth market.

“Ankara is a very suitable city for organizing congresses and fairs. We believe it will make its name through the international conventions that will be held in 2015,” Salih Bezci, head of the Ankara Trade Chamber (ATO) told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. “Ankara will host 41 fairs out of the 456 that will be held in all of Turkey. This is very important,” he said, underlining that the city will host nearly 10 percent of all such events.

Ankara is the capital of Turkey with a population of nearly 4 million and is home to the top governmental institutions; the presidency, parliament and all ministries, as well as the military headquarters. 

The ATO established in early 2014 a special unit under the title of “Ankara Conventions and Visitor Bureau” to coordinate works for making the capital a “city of congress,” Bezci said, adding that the bureau joined the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) in late 2014. “Our membership to this association is very important because all such bureaus communicate with each other and the cities can expose their existence through this association,” he said.

The Bureau is being run by Seçim Aydın who is currently holding meetings with stakeholders for this objective. Bezci stressed that the ATO has become the first trade chamber establishing such an office among all other chambers under the roof of the Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges (TOBB).
“We are of the opinion that Ankara will prove its adequacy in holding conventions and fair tourism,” he said. 
The first international event organized by the bureau was the congress of the International Management Development Association in June 2014, which also included tours to cultural sites in and around Ankara.

Film festival, UFO summit

Among the upcoming international conventions are IFAT Eurasia 2015, Trade Fair for Environmental Technologies, between April 16 and 18, which will host 13,500 participants at Congresium Ankara, the ATO International Convention & Exhibition Center and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification between Oct. 12 and 24 with the participation of 10,000 people including senior government officials from 195 countries.

Ankara Film Festival, organized by the World Mass Communication Foundation between April 24 and May 5 to host 3,500 people, Allgau Orient Rally 2015 with the participation of 700 people with 29 cars between May 13 and 23, the 8th International Energy Fair under the title of “Energy is the Future” between Nov. 4 and 6 and the World UFO Summit to be organized by Sirius UFO Space Research Center in November are among the events to be organized by the Ankara Conventions and Visitor Bureau in 2015.