The 21st East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel exhibition (EMITT) is held in Istanbul between 26-29 January 2017. Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avcı and United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai made the official opening of the tourism exhibition in Istanbul.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Taleb Rifai invited travelers to Turkey. “There are many reasons to travel to Turkey. Firstly, Turkey is a perfect destination, everyone should definitely see it. But secondly, and most importantly, traveling to Turkey is the best response to terrorism,” Rifai said.
“We should continue traveling to Turkey to see whose lives and agenda we have in effect; this is the only way we can respond to terrorism. History will show that Turkey will come back stronger,” he added.
Turkish Tourism Minister said, “We were adversely affected by terror throughout 2016. No city in the world can say ‘I’m 100 percent safe’. Terrorism is a global phenomenon, it can happen anywhere in the world, and the fight against it has to be on a global scale. Turkey is a country with a lot of experience in this field. Hopefully, in the coming years, we will see that the effects of this are getting smaller and smaller,”.
The exhibition was held in a total of 12 halls representing a total exhibition space of 70 thousand sqm. A total of 80 countries promoted themselves together with Turkey’s holiday destinations, winter and outdoor tourism destinations, hotels and tourism centers, tour operators, agencies and hotels. Since Turkey is the most popular tourist destination for Middle Eastern travelers several Middle Eastern countries and companies exhibited at this year’s exhibition.
