Boasting over 8,500 years of history, Istanbul holds a unique position in the world, both geographically and culturally. Today it is a city with a global outlook, as it continues to be a vital meeting point and a popular destination for business and leisure travellers the world over. A melting pot of styles and influences, the city is both impressive and eclectic, offering several unique and unrivalled UNESCO World Heritage sites as a result of its history as the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.
Set against a backdrop of some of the world’s most exciting venues, congress centres and infrastructure projects, as well as contemporary artistic developments and creative industries, the city offers visitors the perfect mixture of modernity and history.
Istanbul has been a mercantile trade centre for many centuries, and today nearly 22,000 international companies operate within its boundaries
Financial centre
Istanbul’s popularity as a leisure and business destination has been rapidly increasing year upon year, reaching a peak of 11.8 million visitors in 2014. In the same year, TripAdvisor readers voted the city the most popular travel destination in the world. By the end of March 2015, Istanbul had already seen an eight percent year-on-year increase in international arrivals, and to this day it remains one of the three most popular tourist destinations in Europe. At present, the city is focusing on investing in projects that will increase its ability to welcome and accommodate this growing number of visitors, with exciting upcoming projects including the construction of a third airport by 2018. This new structure is expected to cater for 150 million passengers every year, making it the largest air transport hub in the world.
The city has been a mercantile trade centre for many centuries, and today nearly 22,000 international companies operate within its boundaries. As the financial centre of the country, Istanbul’s annual contribution to Turkey’s GDP amounted to $820bn in 2014, or 39 percent of the total. The city’s 49 universities and five techno-parks, which manage and encourage the technology and information flow between universities, companies and the market, are evidence of the city’s dedication to being a hub for innovation and learning. In total, Istanbul hosts almost one third of Turkey’s universities and one tenth of its students.
International connections
For both business and leisure travellers, Istanbul offers abundant accommodation, with over 94,000 beds currently available and an additional 46,500 now in production. These hotels are available across the hospitality spectrum, including more than 170 four- and five-star hotels with another 107 currently being built.
Istanbul’s two airports are served by nearly every international airline in operation, making it easily accessible from all corners of the world. The country’s national carrier, Turkish Airlines – which was named as Europe’s best airline four years in a row by the Skytrax World Airline Awards – offers direct flights from Istanbul to more than 260 locations worldwide. Spanning five continents, the airline’s range of destinations means that two billion people across the globe live within six hours’ flying time of Istanbul.
In a bid to maintain its reputation as a city of innovation, Istanbul is continually expanding. A series of new infrastructure projects are currently underway, designed to increase capacity and improve transport links around the city. Work has begun on the Eurasia Tunnel; a kilometre-long road tunnel that will run underneath the Bosphorus to connect the Asian and European continents. A third bridge across the Bosphorus is also currently being constructed as part of the forthcoming 260km-long Northern Marmara motorway. Once completed later this year, the bridge will be the longest combined motorway-railway bridge in the world, as well as the world’s ninth-longest suspension bridge.
Focus on sustainability
By hosting the fifth annual World Water Forum in 2009, Istanbul demonstrated that it has put environmental sustainability at the forefront of its agenda. Sustainability within the meetings and events industry in particular has become a key issue for meeting planners, national associations and influential corporations, and as a result the city now has several ecological projects underway. These include plans to expand the public transport network, develop cycle lanes, create a bike rental system, introduce park and ride schemes, manufacture electric vehicles, create energy production from waste, introduce tree planting projects, and the continuation of the Hotel Greening Project; a scheme designed to encourage environmental sustainability across the city’s hotels. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) is one of the major global authorities putting such projects at the top of its list of priorities.
The city’s environmental concerns combine with its historic venues, palaces, museums, bazaars and cisterns to create the ideal place to meet. With such unique and exciting venues on offer, Istanbul offers meeting planners the opportunity to create some truly outstanding events, from bespoke incentives to meetings for up to 30,000 delegates. The city has seven convention centres and three exhibition locations, offering four separate yet combinable events clusters across the Airport District, Congress Valley and the Golden Horn, as well as on the Asian side of the city. As a result, in 2013 the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Istanbul as the eighth best location in the world.
Istanbul’s array of attractions makes it an appealing destination for business and leisure travellers alike. Magnificent mosques, churches, museums and sultans’ palaces are scattered throughout the city, and the stunning Bosphorus, which runs through the heart of the city, offers delights of its own: visitors can enjoy fresh fish while overlooking the waters, explore the warren of streets in the nearby Grand Bazaar, or take in the heady scents of the Egyptian spice market. Istanbul’s stylish new galleries, modern venues and world-class restaurants allow guests to truly discover the metropolis of the moment. The city is one of the world’s top food destinations, offering high-quality eateries serving traditional fare, haute cuisine and contemporary fusion dishes. Many of these venues are positioned in spectacular locations on the edge of the Bosphorus, offering views across the historic peninsula and beyond.
Cultural capital
Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB) should be every traveller’s first point of contact when visiting this remarkable city. Offering a wide range of services that focus on promoting Istanbul’s beauty, history and versatility, ICVB strives to provide visitors and meeting planners with assistance in organising events, hosting meetings and incentives, and planning exciting social occasions. As the cultural and entertainment capital of Turkey, Istanbul offers exceptional dining, shopping and music venues, and throughout the year concerts, art exhibitions and social gatherings take place. The vibrant city seamlessly combines cultures and people from all over the world, and so is guaranteed to offer a warm welcome for any visitor. Whether guests are looking for a historic tour or an exciting night out, Istanbul promises an exciting experience each and every day.
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