This year’s 17th East Mediterranean Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT) is expected to break a new record, with 4,500 participants from 70 countries, as it draws increased interest from local and foreign tourism firms every year.

EMITT has received applications for participation from 4,500 local and foreign firms, already making the tourism fair the world’s fifth largest such event. Last year’s fair attracted 128,000 visitors, a 12 percent increase over the preceding year.

Opened on Thursday to run until Jan. 27 at İstanbul’s TUYAP Fair and Convention Center, EMITT is coordinated and organized by Turkey’s Ekin Fair. Besides foreign travel professionals, Turkish local authorities and municipalities have shown great interest in the fair, looking to enhance their cities’ popularity as a center of tourism. The Ekin Fair director, Hacer Aydın, says EMITT is among the most respected international tourism fairs as it offers a prominent venue for state and private tourism agencies to build on profitable business ties. “The applications from companies we have received so far already mark a new record in the number of participant firms in the fair. We are looking to boost the fair’s appeal in the years to come,” she says.

Highlighting that the number of visitors to Turkey was 9.58 million in 2000 and that this increased to over 31 million last year, Aydın said fairs similar to EMITT played a considerable role in this regard. She said the number of visitors to Turkey’s touristic areas that were represented at EMITT fairs had increased by as high as seven times since 1997 when EMITT was first held.