Travel And Tour World – How has the ACE of MICE Exhibition been so far?

Ihsan Gemici: It is the sixth time of the exhibition. Our expectation is much better than last year. Here, Istanbul Congress Center, as an organization is looking after the contacts and appointments. We are also monitoring how our appointments are effecting to our business.

Travel And Tour World: What are the challenges you faced while conducting conference?

Ihsan Gemici: We are organizing ACE of MICE Exhibition here. But we are also an exhibitor. There are so many people in Europe who are coming here and we are doing our best to communicate with them, giving them the details about our services.

Travel And Tour World: How are you assessing Istanbul’s MICE market and how is Istanbul Congress Center performing?

Ihsan Gemici: Actually, Istanbul Congress Center is a biggest and newest global congress and event venue. We have more than 115 meeting halls, which can host several international and national level meetings and exhibitions. Located in Harbiye neighborhood of Şişli district in Istanbul (heart of the city), our convention center is apt to hold any meetings or conventions or exhibitions. We believe that we can increase our performances in serving to global meeting industry.

Travel And Tour World – Tell us about the global growth strategies and technological advancements of ICC.

Ihsan Gemici: The strategy of Istanbul Congress Center is to revamp its architecture and also to improve the infrastructure. Our convention centre is boasting with world-class technological infrastructure to host any meetings or events. We are continuously updating our food and beverage section, audio- visual equipment, technology and security to provide high-quality service to our visitors.

Travel And Tour World – How do you create a memorable brand experience?

Ihsan Gemici: Istanbul Congress Center stands out with all contemporary architectural design, world class infrastructure and offering best services. Opened on October 17, 2009, we tried hard to get good number of client base. At that time, we tried to explain who and what we are. We approached to our guests to come and host an event there. This is the 10th year of our convention center. Now everything has changed well. Now we are getting more returning guests. They want something new in our venue. For this we are upgrading. Our team is constantly working to meet our client’s expectation.

Travel And Tour World – Turkey earns about 20% tourism revenue from MICE industry. Can you tell us about what is average daily spending by an event tourist and how far it is contributes to country economy?

Ihsan Gemici: I believe that from tourism, all people are getting benefits. From taxi drivers to the shopping mall, everyone is getting benefit from tourism revenue.

Travel And Tour World – Can you tell about record turnout this year.

Ihsan Gemici: Actually it also depends. When we are organizing international events or congresses, the number gradually rises. But right now, we have just started for this year. Until today, we have more than 25000-30000 people in this congress center. We are going to organize too many bigger events or conventions.