Istanbul to be the new venue for IFAT Eurasia

Stefan Rummel, Managing Director of Messe München, highlighted the benefits of the new event venue: “Istanbul is the ideal location for IFAT Eurasia. This city on the Bosphorus is Europe´s most populous city and it ranks among the world´s mega cities. Here especially there is a high demand for technologies for the segments of water, wastewater, waste disposal and recycling.” Through its geo-graphical location as a link between Asia and Europe, Istanbul is also a central marketplace and interchange, he said, offering an excellent basis for expanding international business relations.

With 15 million inhabitants, this metropolis is almost three times as big as Ankara and its importance for foreign trade is enormous: More than half of Turkish ex-ports and imports are generated here, according to Turkstat, the national statis-tics authority. And, as an international hub for travel and transport, the city is very easy to reach for both visitors and exhibitors.

Osman Bayazit Genç, Managing Director of MMI Eurasia, also sees the move from the capital Ankara to the economic center of Istanbul as positive: “With the first event in Ankara we succeeded in making IFAT Eurasia known also in government circles. Building on this, in 2017 we will certainly be able to achieve fur-ther growth in the heart of Turkey´s economy, the Marmara region, which covers almost 80 percent of the total exports of Turkey.”

10,977 visitors from 75 countries and 228 exhibitors from 19 countries took part in IFAT Eurasia in 2015 in Ankara. In total 362 companies were represented at that event. With 15,500 square meters of exhibition space, the event was fully booked. The new exhibition venue, the IFM, is offering more exhibition space, in order to do justice to the high level of demand from the exhibiting companies.