SESSION 4C: Turizm 359 Congress Tourism in Turkey: SWOT Analysis and Related Strategies Assoc. Prof. Dr. Orhan Akova (Istanbul University, Turkey) Ph.D. Candidate Mehmet Emin Baynazoğlu (Yeni Yüzyıl University, Turkey) Abstract Congress tourism is one of the most developing tourism sectors around the world and in Turkey especially for the cities who are forming its needs. Congress tourism creates higher revenues, provides cities and destinations to spread their season and ensures product differentiation. Turkey has great potential for congress tourism as the cities of Istanbul, Antalya and Izmir present great opportunities for the planners of congresses. The number of congress visitors increased from 443.000 in the year of 2006 to 750.000 in the year of 2010 and it continues to increase. Also goverment gives continuous support to the investments for congress tourism. This paper outlines current situation and analyzes congress tourism in Turkey. In order to analyze congress tourism in Turkey a SWOT view has been taken into consideration. Depending upon SWOT outputs, some relevant strategies for congress tourism in Turkey were discussed. JEL code: L83 1 Introduction Tourism is one of the most important industries by means of creating employment and generating revenues. Right after the Second World War people have started to travel a lot more than before. Life standards were getting better, disposable incomes of the household were becoming higher, spare times for long vacations were also possible. Mainly because of these reasons, especially citizens of developed countries have started to travel all around the world. Air transportation has also gained significance, right after the foundations of International Air Transport Association, (IATA) in 1945 and International Civil Aviation Organization, (ICAO) in 1947. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) data, in 2009, 210 million people are employed in the Tourism industry and 5.5 billion US dollars were generated which makes the 9.4 % of the Global GDP (Sariisik et al 2011). The meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry in the world today,( Kim et al 2003) and has now become a global industry, with as many as 252 countries vying for a share of this lucrative market. During the last ten years, the total number of international meetings (including convention and exhibition) held worldwide grew from 5186 in 2000 to 8294 in 2009, representing a growth rate of 60%. Asia was the continent ranked as the third in the number of conventions held there in 2009, just after Europe and North America (ICCA, 2009; Yee-ManSiu et al 2012). Turkey is an attractive destination with its historical sites, cultural background, prosperous museums, unique ancient sites, Turkish Riviera and natural beauty. In the last two decades, Turkey increased its tourist arrivals from 5,3 million to 31 million and reached the revenue of 22 billion US dollars. Turkey was in 17th place in the world according to the number of tourists, however in the year 2010 it has risen up to 7th place.Turkey was in 12th place according to the tourism revenues in 2002. But, in 2010 it stands in the 9th place. Due to the figures mentioned above, Turkey became one of the most important tourist destinations in the world. Turkey ranked 10th on the world tourism destination chart (www.icec.org). Turkey has competetive advantages with its natural resources, historical places, younger population and hospitality. Turkey may upgrade its tourism revenues with its fascinating attractions and may also increase its share in the world tourism revenues. Turkey started to provide a variety of tourism alternatives in the last few decades. Therefore people may find chance to make a lot of different tourism activities such as sports, health, culture, eco-tourism and congress tourism. Congress tourism is one of the most distinguished tourism alternatives among others. It has been accelerated especially in the last two decades of the 20th century, and started to provide huge revenues by creating great opportunities for employment at the same time. Comparing with its rivals Turkey has a great deal of attractions for its visitors. Congress tourism revenues equal to more than 25 % of total tourism revenues. However, despite of Turkey’s all above mentioned advantages; it only gets the 10 % of total revenues (Ersun et al 2009). This study aims to evaluate Turkish congress tourism in an analytic way that displays strengths-weaknesses and opportunities-threats and rediscovers the appropriate strategies which may be suggested. 2 Literature Review of Congress Tourism Conference, congress and also convention terms are generally used reciprocally in the literature, depending on the region or author’s preference. And also many terms presently used in the congress tourism are based on Latin 360 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EURASIAN ECONOMIES 2012 terms, for example ‘conference’ is originating from the Medieval ‘conferentia and ‘auditorium,’ from ‘auditorius. (Whitfield, 2005). Congresses are considered as general sessions, mostly information giving and the commonly accepted classical form of full membership meeting. All association meetings and conventions given in these rankings must provide such criteria included; i. minimum 50 participants should attend the meeting. ii. should be planned on a regular basis (Should not be organized only one-time). iii. should move between at least 3 different countries (ICCA report 2010). According to the ICCA statistics, North America has been the region with the biggest average numbers of delegates per meeting in the last decade. Europe is holding the leadership in the number of meetings which welcomed the majority of participants and is generally followed by North America (2nd) and Asia & Middle East (3rd) consecutively. Total participant numbers in Asia/Middle East and Africa increased deliberately in the past decade, at the expense of North America and Oceania. Besides that, USA from North America and Germany, France and Italy from Europe, keep their position on top ten lists due to the worldwide rankings: the number of meetings per country statistics (ICCA report 2010). The convention market in the Asia–Pacific region has also increased by 124% during the period of 1980–1996 (Hutchinson, 1997). Congress studies have generally focused on site selection factors, (Crouch & Louviere, 2005; Crouch & Ritchie, 1998; Grant & Weaver, 1996; Jun & McCleary, 1999; Oppermann, 1994; Lee and Back 2008), congress economic impact (Braun 1992) congress economic impact on national economies, ( Grado et al 1998 ;Kim et al 2003) attendee motivation factors, (Rittichainuwat et al, 2001; Severt et.al.2007) meeting planner issues including decision-making processes, (Yoo and Chon, 2008; Baloglu & Love, 2001; Oppermann and Chon 1997; Oppermann, 1998a), destination perception and image assessment (Oppermann, 1996, 1998b) and, convention quality dimensions (Kim, et al 2012) . Economic impact of convention industry can be summarised as follows: (1) the number of delegates for one convention is large; (2) the number of days stayed in a city or country is longer than pleasure travellers with other purposes; (3) international convention delegates spend more than other travellers; (4) delegates who participate in a convention also tend to join in pre- or post-tours (for pleasure); and (5) industries affected by convention are various and interrelated ( Kim et al 2003). Convention industry stabilises the seasonal pressures of tourism. Conferences are generally held in the low season with consequent effects on both the occupancy rate and the environment, reducing imbalances caused by peaks of seasonable tourism (Var et al 1985; Opperman & Chon, 1997 Zhang, et.al 2007) On the other hand Overseas convention attendees are valuable assets for the tourism industry. They usually stay longer and spend more than other types of tourists; attendees are normally opinion leaders who are in a very good position to influence others about a country or region and its offerings. With their favorable word-of-mouth comments, they help in promoting tourism in the host location by giving it a positive image. So it may help the host location to fill hotels during slack seasons (Zhang et al 2007). A large proportion of convention turnover is derived from firms affiliated with the network, such as hotels, convention organisers, retail outlets, transport companies and entertainment providers. This leads to the development of positive effects on the local economy, in terms of greater profits and higher employment levels (Opperman & Chon, 1997 ; Bernini, 2009)). Also meetings, conventions, and trade shows have substantial direct and indirect impacts on a local economy (Grado et al 1998). For example, in 1999 Las Vegas, NV, hosted 3847 conventions for 3.7 million delegates with an economic impact of more than $4.1 billion (During that same year Orlando, FL, hosted 4.84 million conventioneers with an estimated economic impact of $2.8 billion. An additional $331 million was spent by associations and exhibitors at the Orange County Convention Center. Thus, the association market represents an extremely lucrative segment for destination cities across the country. (Baloğlu & love, 2005) International attendants to conferences in Sydney during 1996–1997 stayed on average 6.9 nights in the city and 10 days in Australia in total, and spent on average A$ 5722 on conference registration