The Turkey and Neighbours Hotel Investment Conference (CATHIC), the region’s leading hospitality conference, will return to Istanbul for the fourth year running 9-10 June 2014 at the newly opened Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel & Conference Center.
The event will showcase investment opportunities available in Turkey and provide an opportunity to meet the industry’s top-level executives with a wide range of knowledge from both the local and international perspective.
“Turkey is a key market for investors seeking growth opportunities. CATHIC provides the perfect venue for both the local and international market to come together to listen, learn and network” said Mehmet Önkal, Managing Partner, BDO Hospitality Consulting. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) 2013 report on global tourism, Turkey ranked third in terms of increasing tourism revenues for the first eight months of 2013, an increase of 22 percent compared with the same period in the previous year.
The CATHIC Advisory Board, composed of high-level investors and industry experts, recently convened in Istanbul to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the region’s burgeoning tourism and hospitality sector. Board members include A. Murat Ersoy, President, Turkish Tourism Investors Association (TYD); Ömer Isvan, President, Servotel Corporation; Emre Narin, Vice President, Marti Hotels & Marinas and Marti Gayrimenkul Yatirim Ortakligi AS, a Turkey-based real estate investment company; and Mehmet Önkal, Managing Partner, BDO Hospitality Consulting.
“The advisory board is instrumental in developing a well-rounded and balanced programme with topics and regional issues to be presented and discussed at the conference, ensuring that CATHIC remains an event created by the industry, for the industry,” said Marilyn McHugh, Vice President of global events for Questex Hospitality + Travel.
This year’s event, which attracted more than 300 delegates from 23 countries, highlighted the need to alter the current perceptions surrounding investment in the Turkish market as well as instigating more open and in-depth conversations between the government and the investment community. The advisory board also identified an opportunity in the CATHIC programme for a focus on the resort market and plans are already underway to include a steam dedicated to this important segment of the Turkish hospitality industry.
A selection of other key issues from the meeting include: the role transportation and air linkages play in hotel and tourism investment, opportunities for development in the luxury market, how to minimise unused hotel capacity, the development of extended-stay and mixed-use products including residential complexes and the paradigm shift to social platforms within the hospitality industry.
