We talked to Selçuk Meral, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GM Center, about the Antalya Tourism Fair that will take place in October this year, the Africa Tourism Fair that will be held in May next year and GM Magazine, the biggest publication of Turkish tourism.
“WE ARE HAPPY, EXCITED AND PREPARING WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH”
Mr. Selçuk Meral, what are your expectations for the upcoming ATF 2024?
Antalya Tourism Fair has a real story. Its formation, birth, development is a real story… Because it was a project that we started in 2019 with 3-4 thousand square meters and very few people believed in it. Today, we are organizing the sixth fair, 2 years of which have passed during the pandemic. We are perhaps the only company in the world to organize a fair during the pandemic and to do it successfully. We organized four fairs in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Antalya Tourism Fair will take place on October 23-24-25 this year and my expectations are higher than ever. Because ATF-24 will take place on 35,000 square meters for 3 days this year. Antalya Tourism Fair has gained strength and matured as a global Turkish brand and will open its doors with the expectation of 30 thousand visitors. This year, Antalya Tourism Fair will continue its rapid progress towards becoming an important fair for Turkish tourism, regional tourism and world tourism actors. We are happy, excited and preparing with all our strength.
What innovations, trends and events will stand out at ATF 2024?
We have an established format at Antalya Tourism Fair. First of all, the most obvious change will be the expansion of the area, the increase in the number of companies, the number of exhibitor stands and the increase in the number of days.
Nearly a thousand tourism brands will be with us this year, last year 680 brands took part in the fair. Another important change is that we will continue for 3 days this year. Until today, we have always held it for 2 days, this will be the first time it will be held for 3 days. ATF continues to grow. We have made additions and changes to our panel program. We are dividing our panel program according to different specialization topics; we will have 5 stages, ATF-HEALTH, ATF-TECH, ATF-COUNTRIES, ATF-SPORTS and ATF-MAIN STAGE. Over 100 speakers will share their knowledge, insights and visions with us. Apart from this, we anticipate an increase in the number of agencies coming from abroad. Of course, we have new surprises coming very soon.
“IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR TURKISH TOURISM PROFESSIONALS TO FIND THIS IN ANY OTHER FAIR”
What can you say about ATF’s contribution to Turkish tourism?
ATF is the most productive tourism fair in the world for Turkey and even for resort tourism. Almost all of the tour operators who market and sell resort tourism and most of the markets are participating in the fair institutionally. It is not possible for Turkish tourists to find this in any other fair anywhere else in the world. Therefore, Antalya Tourism Fair is the most productive fair for Turkish tourism products in Turkey, the Mediterranean and even the world. This is also true for the marketing of other brands who want to grow in resort tourism, who want to make sales, who want to consolidate their acquaintances, and for the products of other countries. Of course, this is memorable. People compare it with other fairs in the world. I think we are the best and I think we will improve this concept and definition of the best. An ambitious tourism destination, an ambitious tourism brand, an ambitious tourism country needs different tourism brands in different areas. Antalya Tourism Fair offers the sector, its professionals, investors, stakeholders, stakeholders and start-ups a horizon, a sharing, a unity and an information-sharing platform within a fair structure that reinforces our tourism sector, positioned to move it forward and conditioned to develop it. This platform develops day by day and improves itself to serve them.
THE SUN OF AFRICAN TOURISM RISES IN EGYPT
In addition to Turkey, you opened up to Africa with the Africa Tourism Forum. What are your expectations in organizing the Africa Tourism Fair?
The Africa Tourism Fair, eagerly awaited by the tourism world, will reopen its doors in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in 2025. This prestigious organization, which aims to bring Africa’s rich tourism potential to the global stage, creates great excitement in the sector. As a continuation of the Africa Tourism Forum, this fair will both promote Africa’s tourism values and bring Turkish tourism professionals together with global representatives.
Africa Tourism Fair offers an important platform to support the rapidly developing tourism sector, create opportunities for cooperation and contribute to sustainable tourism development. The fair, which draws attention with its B2B theme exclusively for tourism professionals, represents an innovative approach in the sector.
GMT Fuarcılık stepped into this innovative fair organization approach in 2019 with Antalya Tourism Fair (ATF). Bringing together national and international tourism professionals, investors and start-ups with the principle of “on-site marketing”, ATF hosts one-to-one business meetings with over 20 thousand professional participants and 2 thousand invited travel agencies every October. Antalya Tourism Fair, which is exclusively for industry professionals, has hosted more than 70 thousand tourism professionals in the last five years.
GMT Africa organized the second edition of the ATF series, the Africa Tourism Forum on 20-21 May 2024. As the launch and first step of the Africa Tourism Fair, the overwhelming interest and positive feedback to this forum has increased the desire and necessity to organize the Africa Tourism Fair. The Africa Tourism Fair, which will be attended by government agencies, industry stakeholders and tourism professionals, will focus on Africa’s young population and cultural diversity, and will bring sustainable growth strategies and business opportunities for the continent’s tourism to the information sharing platform.
GM MAGAZINE, THE LARGEST PUBLICATION OF TURKISH TOURISM, TURNS 20
In addition to the fair organization, you also make a name for yourself in the media side of tourism. With 20 years of continuous publication of GM Magazine and your news website gmdergi.com, we can say that you are the biggest tourism media in Turkey. What would you like to say about this?
Thank you for your valuable feedback. This year, we are proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GM Magazine, the longest-running publication in Turkish tourism. In this journey of almost a quarter of a century, we have played an important role in sharing information, promoting innovative ideas and professional development in the sector, and have worked to contribute to world tourism, especially Turkish tourism.
Launched in 2004, GM Magazine has brought together the changes, developments and success stories in the sector with our valuable readers for the past twenty years.
In each issue, we have managed to keep our finger on the pulse of the sector by covering different aspects of tourism. GM Magazine, the loud voice of tourism, is growing, developing and reaching more and more people every day with the interest and support of our readers.
We have expanded our sharing network, which started with printed publications, with GM Magazine’s social media accounts. In this way, we continue to reach more than 1 million people every month and continue to make the voice of tourism heard. In the future, we will continue to follow the developments in the sector with the same tenacity and determination, and provide our valuable readers with the most up-to-date and accurate information. You can follow GM Magazine and its social media accounts to be informed about the developments in world tourism, especially tourism in Turkey. Thank you very much.