Dear Meeting Planners,

I wish to begin by saying that I regard the Istanbul Guide produced by Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau, which was founded as part of the Tourism Development and Education Foundation, as a publication of outstanding importance for the tourism sector.

With its dynamic structure, the tourism sector is a crucial driving force in the development of countries. Turkey's historical and cultural legacy, widely diverse climate and geography, hospitable people and natural beauty constitute immense tourism potential. As the Ministry of Culture and Tourism our priorities in the field of tourism are diversification of tourism products, and making Turkey one of the foremost tourist destinations in the world.

Istanbul is ideally placed for long weekend breaks from Europe, possesses the infrastructure required by convention tourism, and offers a diversity of products for many different target groups throughout the year, rather than just the summer months. With all these advantages, the city is a major tourism centre that can enhance the brand prestige of Turkey.

Therefore we have launched the Istanbul Destination Project with the aim of ensuring that Istanbul, a world city at a crossroads of civilizations, and Turkey's most valuable brand, becomes one of the world's foremost convention and cultural centres, taking its place alongside the other cities of Europe.

By means of tourism policies combining vision with culture, it is one of our main goals that Turkey as a whole and Istanbul in particular, although a latecomer to the tourism market, should obtain a maximum share of worldwide tourism revenues.

We are therefore particularly delighted when volunteers like ICVB undertake projects that contribute to furthering this goal. Istanbul Meeting Planner's Guide, which is published to acquaint convention planners with Istanbul's facilities and advantages, fulfils an important mission, and with its comprehensive coverage of Istanbul in all its aspects will undoubtedly generate significant new opportunities for the sector.

I thank all those whose efforts have gone into producing such a valuable reference book, and offer them my affectionate esteem.

Erkan Mumcu
Minister of Culture and Tourism