Int’l wedding, tourism forum kicks off in Turkey

By Eda Fatma Topcu

ANTALYA, Turkey (AA) - The International MICE and Wedding Forum (IMWF) began its annual conference Monday in the resort city of Antalya in hopes of increasing Turkey's share of the market.

Last year's gathering generated a “huge rise” in the demand for destination weddings by causing great resonance globally, IMWF Managing Partner Necip Fuat Ersoy told the conference.

“We were moving in a common vision in line with our country’s promotion strategy in coordination with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Directorate General of Promotion [in Turkey],” he said. “As a sector, IMWF is an important indicator for understanding how strong we are in international competition.

"[Turkey] has repeatedly demonstrated that we have the strongest sector in international competition with all the components of tourism and open to development," he added.

MICE is an acronym for Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions and the four-day event, will be attended by a who’s who and decision makers in the sector from India, Dubai and the Community of Independent States countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

IMWF 2019 is organized with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology and the Antalya Governorship.