The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is exhibiting in a prominent space again this year at the World Travel Market (WTM) on the stand EM1000-1050. A huge variety of partner stands are providing information on the diversity of experiences on offer in Turkey, one of the world’s most popular destinations.

For this year’s WTM the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is highlighting what’s new in travel and tourism for 2015 with Irfan Onal, General Director at the Directorate of Tourism Promotion and Advertising, present at today’s ‘meet and mingle’ reception held on the Turkey stand. The Turkey stand will also host a Turkish traditional music ensemble featuring the instruments qanun, violin, clarinet, and tambourine, playing live on the stand on Wednesday, 5 November between 5-7 pm. 

An exciting focus for this year’s WTM will be #takemetoturkey, a new competition that will reward winning entries from travel bloggers and Instagrammers with holidays to Turkey The six winners will be announced at WTM at a media networking event today at 2.30pm on the Turkey stand.

This year’s focuses include Istanbul, recently named top destination in the world by Tripadvisor readers, and Turkey’s diverse MICE offerings. Istanbul was ranked 8th by the ICCA in its 2013 Rankings for Cities and Countries and first for large congresses of 300-500 guests –the 30th AITO Overseas Conference will be held there later this month on 27-30 November. Antalya is another central attraction for the MICE industry; he International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) World Congress is currently being held in Antalya (1-5 November), while Expo 2016 Antalya, a huge expo of agriculture and horticulture, will be held in the city over six months in 2016 with 100 countries exhibiting and eight million people expected to attend Turkey will also highlight the historic destinations of the city of Bursa & its village of Cumalikizik and Pergamon in the city of Izmir newly added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List this year, and new tourism infrastructure developments including the skiing centre at Mount Erciyes in Kayseri, close to the well-known tourism centre of Cappadocia.

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism will also be hosting a stand on Gallipoli ahead of Turkey’s commemoration of the centenary in 2015 of World War I’s Gallipoli, which has also just been named the top region for Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel. On display will be a selection of black and white photography depicting the period.