Istanbul Sultanahmet Tourism Cluster

ISTANBUL SULTANAHMET TOURISM CLUSTER

Cluster representative:		Melih Bulu, Director, Competitive Advantage of Turkey melihb @ competitiveturkey.org
Facilitator:		David Nordfors, Special Advisor to the Director General, VINNOVA, Sweden david.nordfors @ vinnova.se
Conclusions:		Grant Morrill, Private Enterprise Officer, Office of Emerging Markets, USAID
Key issues: Turkish tourism revenues are increasing, but Istanbul's share of it has been in decline. A pilot cluster study was made for the Sultanahmet region in order to recover the position of Istanbul. A cluster map was defined, a cluster community gathered, the weak points were defined and are now being treated. An increasing majority of the Sultanahmet cluster customers are from EU countries. Big EU tourism companies are therefore increasing their presence and the rules of competition are changing. In order to meet the challenge related to the EU expansion, the Sultanahmet cluster is working to increase the interaction with the EU, for example through participation in EU programmes.