Ahmet Savaşan, Director of Near East Tourism and Travel Enterprises, which operates under the Near East University (NEU), recently participated in the Travel Turkey International Fair and Conference, which was jointly organized by the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies and Hannover Messe International Istanbul Fuarcılık at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Culture Center in Istanbul and visited by approximately 180 exhibitors and 7200 commercial and significant number of consumers from 23 countries.
According to the press release issued by the Directorate of Press and Public Relations Office of Near East University, Ahmet Savaşan, who introduced the opportunities of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in the fields of Congress and Incentive, participated in various meetings with sector professionals in order to present Northern Cyprus as an alternative market to the tourism sector, participated in conferences organized and explained his projects for 2006.
During his stay in Istanbul, Savaşan made various contacts and told the companies that decided on congress tourism that NEU could host them and Ahmet Savaşan introduced the opportunities of TRNC in these fields to congress tourism professionals. He also explained that the hotels in Northern Cyprus, as well as the Near East University, have meeting halls with capacities that can be expressed in thousands.
Savaşan said, “Travel Turkey International Fair, which is an important organization with the participation of leading travel agencies, hotels and Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB) as well as twelve touristic regions and many countries, has been beneficial for both Turkey and our country. This year, unlike previous years, our ministry participated in the fair with an open-plan booth and promoted our country's tourism in the best way possible with the activities it organized. During the fair, we participated in the conferences on ‘Destination Turkey’ and ‘Development of meeting planners and specialized congress tourism in Turkey’ where more than twenty national and international tourism professionals participated as speakers and we explained to the sector representatives there that TRNC should be seen as an alternative destination within the programs offered in Turkey, not as a competitor to Turkey.” Savaşan finally said that while determining the Tourism Policy in the TRNC, the employees working in the sector and the employees of the organizations that make a living from the sector will be happy by getting the reward for their efforts, In this context, he emphasized that there is a great need to give importance to areas such as Special Interest Tourism, Congress Tourism, Trade Fairs, Camping and Education Tourism and to carry out promotional activities on these issues in a serious manner without delay, and that they are using all their means in this sense.
