The Royal Thai Embassy in Ankara in cooperation with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Rome Office, which also covers tourism market in the Republic of Turkey participated in the 18^th East Mediterranean Tourism and Travel Exhibition 2014 (EMITT 2014) held in Istanbul during 30 January – 2 February 2014.

On 30 January, H.E. Mr. Tharit Charungvat, Ambassador of Thailand, and Ms. Jittima Sukpalin, Director of TAT Rome Office, attended the opening ceremony of EMITT 2014 at TÜYAP Exhibition Center, Istanbul. The Fair was presided over by H.E. Mr. Ömer Çelik, Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. Activities at the Thai stand included demonstration of fruit carving, umbrella painting and Thai food cooking and tasting. The Thai stand was honoured by the visit of H.E. Mr. Çelik and H.E. Mr. Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul, who were welcomed by H.E. Ambassador Charungvat. During the Minister’s and the Mayor’s visit, H.E. the Ambassador presented both of them with a hand-painted umbrella as a memento. H.E. the Minister and H.E. the Mayor spent some time at the Thai booth watching fruit carving and umbrella painting demonstration with great interest. In addition to the artistic and cultural activities, the meetings between the Thai hotel and resort representatives from Phuket with their Turkish counterparts also took place actively. The four-day long activities at the Thai booth grabbed the attention of more than 10,000 visitors both general public and local media, with that popularity the Thai booth was awarded the “Best Promotion” prize.  

The East Mediterranean Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT) was first held in 1997. With its continuous growth, EMITT is among the top five most visited tourism fairs in the world. There were over 4,500 local and foreign exhibitors from 70 countries and more than 130,000 visitors attending EMITT this year. Thailand has joined the Exhibition since 2008 with the goal to increase people-to-people contact between Thai and Turkish peoples through tourism.

The number of tourists from Turkey to Thailand has been increasing continuously and at an impressive pace. According to statistics, the number of Turkish arrived in Thailand from January to September 2013 is 41,599 up from the same period of the year 2012 by 15.82 percent. Currently, Turkish Airlines operates 11 direct flights a week from Istanbul to Bangkok. Turkish can visit Thailand without visa requirement and stay up to 30 days.