We believe that our country needs technical and financial support in terms of promotion and marketing, and a separate planning system for congress tourism in order to have a greater share in the international congress sector.

Our congress center was built for the “European Wrestling Championship” held on June 3, 1949, and was opened for service on the same date under the name of Istanbul Sports and Exhibition Center. The first fair organization in our building was held on October 2 of the same year; “Istanbul International Trade and Industry Fair”. On February 17, 1988, the name of our building was changed to Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar Sports and Exhibition Center, and in 1996, when the United Nations decided to hold the Habitat II Summit in Istanbul, it was transformed into an international congress center and continued to serve the tourism sector under the name of Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar International Congress and Exhibition Center. The largest and most comprehensive conference of the United Nations at the end of the 20th century, the Habitat II Summit, was successfully completed here.

This year, we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of our main building, as the first player in Turkey in the market we operate in, we have designed a special logo for our 75th anniversary in order to emphasize our 75th year of knowledge, experience and expertise, and we will be using this logo in all our corporate channels throughout 2024. Our facility consists of 2 main buildings; While we mostly hold fairs and gala dinner events for 2000-2500 people in our Rumeli Halls, Anadolu Auditorium, located in the center of our main building, hosts musicals, symphony orchestras, film premieres, conferences and congresses with its orchestra pit, advanced stage and hall acoustic techniques.

We have a total of 40 divisible and soundproof halls, and with these features, different events can be held in our facility at the same time. In addition, our halls are suitable for all set-ups such as classroom, theater and board arrangements with their daylight and flat-floor designs. Located in the Congress Valley, where the culture, art and business world of Istanbul meet, Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Center has the capacity to host many events from international congresses and meetings to fairs and exhibitions, cocktails to gala dinners, film premieres to cultural and artistic events with the technical infrastructure and food and beverage services it offers. We host an average of 200 events at our center throughout the year. The primary purpose of many events we host is communication and interaction. We see that communication channels and platforms, which had to be digitalized due to the pandemic process, are regaining their former shape with the longing and desire for face-to-face communication and coming together in the last quarter of 2023. We see this change in the occupancy rates of us and other event centers in the market.

The vast majority of our events at our center are fairs and congresses. With the opening of the Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Center in 1996 and the realization of HABİTAT in our facility, our country became an important congress destination where large congresses could be held and maintained its appeal in the following years, but as of 2010, we witnessed this rise slowing down and then unfortunately declining. Here, we see the reasons for both the security problems experienced in our country and our nearby geography and the increase in investments and support of other countries in this market. For example, we can say that many high-budget congresses and fairs held in Turkey between 2000-2010 were held in Dubai and Eastern European countries.

We think that our country needs technical and financial support in terms of promotion and marketing and a separate planning system for congress tourism in order to have a greater share in the international congress sector. At this point, subsidizing congress/fair processes with state support, as in other leading countries in the sector, is one of the most important points we need in the development of congress tourism. Congresses and fairs held in our country create new income points directly and indirectly for our total tourism revenues and constitute an important alternative to our country’s promotion and marketing channels. Therefore, as we mentioned above, a separate planning system and state support for congress and fair tourism will provide a high level of development in our sectoral success. In 2024, we aim to increase the number of congresses, fairs and events we hold by 45 percent compared to the previous year. This year, unlike previous years, another goal of ours is to increase the number of our cultural and artistic events.

Tourism Project Magazine, 03.04.2024