Antalya As Destination In Convention Tourism

Antalya As Destination In Convention Tourism

Gonca, Manap Davras

Convention tourism is a type of alternative tourism consisting of the total of activities which emerge as a result of the organization of meetings. Individuals convene in line with the developments in science and technology and the increasing need for specialization, in order to learn new technologies, to explain and present their scientific work, or to engage in an exchange of information. This situation introduces convention tourism, an important type of alternative tourism activity. Growing rapidly, this type of tourism came to tone into other types of tourism and now possesses an important share in world tourism. There are about 9 thousand conventions all over the world each year both at national and international levels, and as a result, 75 million people travel for these conventions. Convention tourism, which partially solves the problem of seasonal tourism and has the potential to bring high revenues, is next to leisure tourism, an important alternative tourism activity highly preferred in Turkey. After Istanbul, Antalya now wants to have a say in the market of international conventions. This study displays the nature of convention tourism in Turkey and in the world with numeric data. It indicates the characteristics of convention tourism as well as the expectations of attendees from the convention centers. The chosen convention city shall be above a certain level so as to fulfill these expectations. With this aim, Antalya, which wants to play a bigger role in the convention market, has been thoroughly examined through a SWOT analysis. Keywords: Alternative tourism, Convention tourism, Antalya

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05-31

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