The Most Important Meeting of Turkish Marble

Bursa Block Marble Fair, organized for the on-site discovery of Turkish marble, one of the most important ores of Turkey, will host industry professionals with the theme of ‘Discover Turkish Marble on Site from Turkish Producers’ this year.

Can you tell us about yourself?

I was born in 1967 in Ankara, after graduating from Anadolu University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics in Eskişehir, I went to London, after continuing my education in London, I completed my education life by completing my master’s degree at Istanbul University on my return.

31 years ago, I started my career at Tüyap and after working at every level of sales, I first worked as the general manager of Tüyap Bursa Fair organzation Inc. Co., then Tüyap Konya Fair organzation INC. CO., Tüyap Adana Fair organzation INC. CO. within the scope of Tüyap’s project to expand to Anatolia. I played an active role in establishing Tüyap’s Anatolian organization. I also served as the vice chairman of the TOBB Fair Organization Assembly. In addition to these duties, I have been the vice chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Fair Producers Association for 3 terms.

What is the theme of Bursa Block Marble Fair this year?

The theme of Bursa 7th International Block Marble Fair this year will be ‘Discover Turkish Marble on Site from Turkish Producers’. This year is both the 100th anniversary of our Republic and the seventh year of our fair, which makes us proud. In order to emphasize “Turkish Marble” to the industry professionals coming from all over the world and to enable them to discover the world’s most important gems in Turkey, we have prepared this year’s theme based on the discourse I just mentioned.

Which companies from which countries were among the participants of the fair?

Our country, which is very rich in terms of natural resources, has 5.1 billion m3 -13.9 billion tons of probable marble reserves.   This value corresponds to 33% of the world reserve total, which is estimated to be 15 billion m3.

We see that 90% of the 800 marble quarries in our country are concentrated in the Aegean and Marmara Regions, and when we look at the provinces, we see that Balıkesir, Afyonkarahisar, Bilecik, Denizli, Muğla and Eskişehir come to the fore together with Bursa. Our exhibition, which we organized for the seventh time in Bursa, which stands out with the number of marble quarries and its location close to the port, will continue to provide added value to the country’s economy with the business volume it will create.

Almost all of the participants of the Bursa Block Marble Fair, which you organized in the natural stone sector, which has a strong production, consist of Turkish producers and we have companies from Germany.

What are the advantages of this fair for the sector?

Bursa International Block Marble Fair is important in terms of showing the power of the region and our country to the world because it is the only specialized fair in its field. One of the advantages of this fair is that it responds to the needs of the sector. Another advantage is that domestic and foreign visitors will create employment in the sector with the orders they will receive from our exhibitors.  The fact that the block marbles purchased are processed and used in many different sectors such as construction, architecture and building also triggers trade in these sectors. The fact that trend colors, new designs and different patterns will be seen in the fair area at the same time will give a message to the sector.

What is the purpose of Bursa Block Fair and how do you aim to contribute to the sector?

The primary purpose of Bursa International Block Marble Fair is to provide added value to the sector and to bring the sector’s exports to where they deserve. Fairs have an important place in the marketing argument of companies, if you cannot market the product produced, you cannot reach the target. As the leading company in the sector, we offer our exhibitors opportunities to reach new target geographies. With the effective promotions made, business people organized from 60 countries such as India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Kuwait, USA, Greece, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Tunisia will be at our fair to buy Turkish marble from Turkish producers. The world’s only block marble fair, which provides added value to the sector trade with B2B meetings that will take place during the fair and will last for four days, will ensure that the heart of the sector beats on October 25-28.

Will there be a sectoral buyer delegation organization in this year’s program of bursa block fair?

We are organizing the ‘Natural Stone Sector Buyer Delegation’ for the second time this year with the Istanbul Mineral Exporters Association.  The organization, which we organized for the first time last year and which resulted in more than 250 business meetings between business people from many parts of the world and our producers, accelerated the trade in the sector. This year, the organization, which will include business people from Indonesia, Thailand, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Brazil, will take place simultaneously with the fair.

What are the opportunities offered by the fair to increase interaction between exhibitors and visitors and to establish business contacts?

Bursa Block Marble Fair, where 2,200 blocks of marble of high quality, 650 different colors and patterns extracted from almost all quarries of our country are exhibited without being processed, continues to be a bridge between exhibitors and visitors. Our fair, also known as “The Heaviest Fair of the Sector”, will bring together business people from 60 countries, including new countries, with the sector this year. At the same time, we will provide added value to the sector trade with the B2B meetings we will hold for four days.

What are the future goals and projects of Bursa Block Fair and how will they encourage developments in the sector?

Especially our biggest goal is to become the most important specialized fair in the world with the recent loss of power of Italy. To be able to spread our unprocessed block marbles, which are exhibited in our indoor areas in our fairgrounds, all over the world. In addition to this, while providing added value to the sector, we also want to increase the brand value of our fair and announce it to the whole world. As I said before, we are expecting a significant visitor profile especially from European countries this year as well as India. In the coming years, we hope to bring different visitor profiles to our fair by expanding the awareness of our fair to Latin America, the Far East, Australia and many other distant geographies. In order to increase our brand value even further, we are working as the entire Tüyap team on many different PR activities and preparations for our special works for the digital world, which we will realize in the coming years.

How do you evaluate the feedback from exhibitors and visitors and how do you take this feedback into account when planning future fairs?

As Tüyap Fair organization Group, we have a very wide sectoral data. During the preparation period for the fair, we take the feedback of our exhibitors and past visitors, measure their expectations for the fair and carry out our work in line with expectations during our fair preparation period. With the data we have, we both carry out our digital studies and keep the pulse of the sector. During the fair period, we determine our target countries in line with the expectations of our exhibitors and our esteemed association MADSİAD and ensure the participation of industry professionals in those countries.