City focus
More than
a destination…
PAUL COLSTON GETS A CLOSE UP LOOK
AT THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ACTION
IN ISTANBUL, WHERE SOME MAJOR PROJECTS
ARE GIVING A BIG FILLIP TO BUSINESS
TOURISM AND THE EVENTS SECTOR
stanbul has always had a
magic pull for the
discerning traveller, its
image conjuring up trading,
bazaars and spices; the Bosphorus and
ancient artefacts, as well as sumptuous
food and drink.
Istanbul CVB showcased its city of
over 15 million people on the Bosphorus’s
charms, ancient and modern, to a select
media group in February. The timing
could not have been better, with a still
gleaming new international airport
making an immediate impression for
arrivals.
The incredible engineering feat has
seen the completion of initial stages of
what will become the largest airport in
the world. It currently handles 90m
passengers a year and will grow into an
‘Airport City’ employing 90,000 people.
The airport is 50km from the heart of
Istanbul so the journey in to the centre
gives plenty of time to contemplate the
new scale of things. And with Turkish
Airlines claiming the broadest reach of
Above right:
Sira Night is one of
many options for
sampling Turkey’s
rich regional
culture
Below:
At the Istanbul
Chamber of
Commerce with a
view over the new
Galataport cruise
development
any airline in the world, Istanbul is
charting a course as the No.1 hub for
global air travellers.
Turkey is already the sixth most
visited country of the world with 46m
visitors, with revenues from tourism
increasing 17% in 2019 to hit US$34.5bn.
In recent years the scourge of terrorism
had severely dented the city’s valuable
visitor market but now the resurgent
Istanbul is primed for hosting major
events with a new security climate and
new infrastructure, which includes
modern tram and metro systems and a
new tunnel under the Bosphorus.
A city that had fallen down the ICCA
City Rankings is now fast climbing back
up the list.
Another impressive feat of engineering
is the US$1.7bn investment in the
Galataport Istanbul Cruise Port
development. That will deliver new,
modern cruise facilities, as well as 250
food retail points and 43,000sqm of
office space. The investment will bring
another centrally located tourist
attraction that is projected to welcome
25m visitors a year, including 1.5m cruise
passengers and crew per year. The first
cruise ship is set to arrive on 5 April
2020. When fully complete, the port is
designed to accommodate three ships
and 15,000 passengers a day.
The port complex will be a high-tech
destination, including two contemporary
art museums and will spread along
1.2km of coastline, much of which has
ISSUE 105
Istanbul
• 8,500 years of history
• Former capital of three empires
• 14.9m foreign visitors in 2019
• 6th most visited city of the world
• 15.1m population
• Two international airports
• New cruise port: Galataport
opening in April 2020
• 232 4-star & 5-star hotels
• 115,000 bed capacity
• Istanbul 2010 – European Capital
of Culture
• Istanbul 2012 – European Capital
of Sport
• 56 universities, 7 techno parks, 121
modern shopping malls
• 91 museums, 4 historical bazaars,
5 imperial palaces and dozens of
summer palaces and mansions
• 7 purpose-built convention centres
& 3 exhibition centres
been closed to public access for 200
years. It will be a physical as well as
metaphoric opening up along the shore
and for business.
Our media group was invited to join
the city’s industry leaders at a meeting at
Istanbul’s Chamber of Commerce to hear
the detail of this and other interlinked
projects designed to drive not just more
visitors to the city, but new industry
sectors which, in turn, should provide a
steady stream of meetings and events
business.
The core of the city’s conference
market is to be found in Istanbul’s
Congress Valley, where two international
convention centres (ICC and ICEC), sit
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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