Interview with Nergis Aslan, the General Manager of ATRAX Expo
■Michelle Mak／Jasmin Zhuang
Turkey, a country with developed transportation, is located between Europe, Asia and Africa, and is strongly influenced by surrounding markets.  With the Turkish economy in recession in 2018 and the lira plunging nearly 30 percent against the dollar, the currency crisis has taken a heavy toll on the Turkish economy.  Even in such economic turmoil, ATRAX, Turkey's only international event for the amusement and theme park industry, was held as scheduled and attracted dealers, manufacturers, government officials, tourism investors, shopping center operators and other professionals from the industry.  In addition, the organizer also held a new show Adventure '19 this year, thus, GTI sent a representative from our overseas department to interview with Nergis Aslan on a series of questions about the on-site situation of the exhibition and the demand of the Turkish amusement market.

ATRAX, a top-end networking platform in the industry

GTI: How do you think about the first two days of the expo? Did it achieve the desired effect? Are there any data about the visitor numbers?
Nergis Aslan: ATRAX is the largest expo for the entertainment industry in Turkey.  The majority of Turkey's population is young people, which is very compatible with the audience level of the whole industry.  The exhibition effect is very impressive.  According to statistics, the number of visitors in the first two days of the show is about 8,000, because of the addition of Adventure Expo this year, I believe the number of visits will continue to increase. Moreover, it is not open to players, but only to professionals, which to some extent ensures the accurate connection of information between exhibitors and visitors.

GTI: What is the exhibition area this year? How many exhibitors are there? What is the theme of this show?
Nergis: About 160 exhibitors including 20 first-timers exhibited their products at this 6,500 sq.m. show floor.  However, after the recent elections in Turkey, the prefectural governments will have a different atmosphere, and there may be some changes in the policies for the entertainment industry.  And this year, ATRAX’s theme "happy city" was taken into the work of various counties and municipalities.  With the support of the government, the only entertainment fair in Turkey is bound to grow bigger and bigger.

GTI: We see that there are more distributors for China-made products in the exhibition, is it because there are fewer Turkish manufacturers? What's your personal impression of the products made in China?
Nergis: Most of the products are imported from Europe or China, but there are more manufacturers buying products from China for two reasons.  On the one hand, the cost of imports from China is lower; on the other hand, there is a shift in perception.  In the past, Turks’ impression of “Made in China” was not good, but now with the strengthening of China’s national strength and the recognition of Chinese manufacturing by some major European brands, we are getting better and better impressions of China-made products.

GTI: Nowadays, there are more and more amusement parks and indoor entertainment centers in Turkey. What do you think about the future development of the Turkish amusement industry? What kind of products do you think will be the biggest advantage in the Turkish amusement industry market?
Nergis: In fact, I have never seen a country with so many shopping centers as Turkey, because Turks go to shopping centers on holidays and weekends, and every shopping center has these entertainment facilities, so I am very optimistic about the development of this industry in Turkey, and there are still many shopping centers under construction. I think outdoor equipment and VR technology are the future trend, but we do not do too much work for the time being to absorb the VR exhibitor in to our show, As VR is a professional field, those who are interested in VR equipment will look for resources, and those who are not interested will not be easily impressed by us. From our perspective, we will focus on inviting more buyers to attend our exhibition.

GTI: What resources will the expo provide for exhibitors and buyers so that they can get the most out of the expo?
Nergis: We spent a year doing a lot of publicity work to a lot of investors and buyers, both at home and abroad.  The scale of the award ceremony was much larger than before. Besides, because this time we cooperated with the municipal government and combined the theme of "happy city", so there were more awards than before.

GTI: When is next year’s show? What are your expectations? Can you tell me what new plans there are?
Nergis: The next edition of ATRAX will be held on February 13~15 next year.  The scale will be larger, and even our Adventure Expo will be expanded. The theme is also "happy city", because the nature of this industry is to make people happy, which is also our goal.  I hope we will have closer cooperation with GTI in the future!

※The article is published in the March issue No. 173 of GTI Magazine in 2019