Evaluation of congress tourism development in the world and in Turkey

Abstract

Tourism has become one of the important events in the world with travel taking less time and becoming ever cheaper. Today many people are travelling to see new places or to have new experiences, and these movements result in considerable changes in community life (Do_an, 1987). From the beginning of tourism movements different inputs and mutual interactions have been faced. These emerge in some changes in community structures. When congress tourism and tourism movements are studied together, it can be seen that they have many common parts. In congress tourism, varying types can be seen: conferences, seminars, symposiums. A comprehensive name can be given for all these efforts: a “meeting”. Meetings can be summarized as conversations for information exchange among people gathered in a meetingplace. Sometimes the congress tourism concept can be used instead of meeting. Meeting delegates have high income levels and their spending amounts are generally higher than those of normal tourists. With only limited time, meeting delegates depart quickly after the meeting. Beside the meeting delegates, there are also accompanying people, and these people are also a good potential in meeting efforts (Tekeli, 2001). Since the importance of tourism is increasing day by day, this importance brings strong competition. Countries have to compete for new tourism markets as well as keep existing markets. In this context, congress tourism can be evaluated as one important type of tourism. In this article, congress tourism movements are examined in the world and in Turkey. Developments, the important countries, cities, and efforts related to this subject have been investigated.

Citation

Akin Aksu, A., Erdinç Ören, V., Sinan, V. and Özcan, C. (2004), "Evaluation of congress tourism development in the world and in Turkey", Tourism Review, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 44-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb058429