■Michelle Mak／Jasmin Zhuang
  On February 16, ATRAX 2019 made it a success in Istanbul, a traffic hub city, as well as an international metropolis that is the core of Turkish politics, economy, culture, finance, news and trade. Straddling the Eurasian continent, Turkey is a cultural crossroads between the east and the west, also an important emerging economy in the world. This year, with the “Happy Cities” theme, ATRAX brings to the forefront, attraction and recreation projects that create more opportunities for socializing and activities, and focused on the happiness of the residents of the city.

ATRAX with endless splendor

With the rapid growth of Turkey's national economy, its game and amusement industry also develops swiftly. In 2017, Turkey's amusement market output value was about CNY 780 million, ranking 18th in the world, which shows its potential. Organized by Tureks International Fairs, ATRAX-7th Attraction-Events, Parks-Recreation Exhibition concluded with a perfect ending at Istanbul Expo Center on 16th February. We came together one more time at ATRAX Exhibition, the international summit of the Attraction- Parks-Recreation Industry in Turkey, introducing the latest innovations and services in the sector in the world to mainly municipalities as well as to shopping malls, hotels, housing project companies, corporations, organizers, and investors. We are aware that Turkey has a major geographical advantage due to being located at the crossroads for target markets in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Due to this advantage she has, we believe that Turkey is an ideal candidate to become the main hub for the region’s attraction industry.  ATRAX Exhibition was organized for the 7th time by Tureks International Fairs under the company's sustainable efforts with Outdoor Factory as the gold sponsor and Polin Waterpark as Silver Sponsor. Tureks promises to move forward to bring together at a larger scale the stakeholders of the attraction and recreation industry with innovative ideas.

As one of the effective ways to enter the Turkish market, as well as a bridge connecting the European and Asian game and entertainment industry, ATRAX has been growing day by day, and has gradually become an international event for the entertainment and theme park industry. In order to exploit the Turkish market, and open up the Eurasian market barrier through the Turkish market, adhering to the purpose of helping China-made products of games and entertainment to go abroad, GTI’s managing director Angie Huang and overseas department representative Michelle Mak traveled 7,500 kilometers to Turkey to aid with publicity . This three-day ATRAX show gathered more than 100 well-known enterprises in the industry from Turkey, China, Iran, Italy, Germany and other regions and countries, including among them were Elephant, Tecway, YOYOLLA, LS-Game, Zhongshan Aita, Fantawild International and Hebei Zhipao.

Panoramic view of numerous new products
Lots of exhibits were displayed at ATRAX including large-scale theme park equipment, indoor amusement equipment such as kiddie rides, ticket machine, simulation machines, gift machines, VR equipment, components, and environmental art facilities. Among them, the equipment with the theme of sports competitions like bowling, basketball machine, especially table football were to be seen at every corner of the show floor; however, we could hardly see crane machines, scissor machines and the industry new stars - lucky bag machine and lipstick machine, which are fashionable products in China. Some manufacturers said that this is related to Turkey's ban on the import of crane machines, and the high cost of self-research and development, so the crane machine in Turkey has almost disappeared.

ATRAX continues to enlighten thru conferences, gala night and awards ceremony

Adventure Turkey & ATRAX, the first and only specialized exhibition of the attraction industry in Turkey and local region where large scale projects are brought to life were organized concurrently, bringing together all inter-related areas of the sector at the same platform. Aiming to meet the networking needs of the sector, the platform, with its strong exhibitor and visitor base, the expo increased the potential offered by the sector while facilitating new commercial partnerships. The main discussion topics of the conference organized as part of ATRAX 2019 Exhibition, that brought together leaders of the sector, academicians, local governments, society presidents, directors of organizations and institutions and universities, were “Importance and Necessity of Building Happy Cities’ and “The Impact of Entertainment and Recreation on the Happiness of City People”.

The winners of “Shining Star Attraction, Events and Recreation Awards 2019” which is organized as part of ATRAX Exhibition were announced at ATRAX Gala night. “Shining Star Awards” which is organized with the goal of encouraging new projects and creating awareness in the sector by rewarding successful projects, resulted in a more vibrant event this year. At the competition a total of 20 awards were presented. Winners were selected objectively by a jury of 19 experts comprising professionals of the sector, academicians, and society presidents. The organizers were delighted to have received positive feedback and appreciation from their guests regarding the night and hopes to experience the same great excitement with everyone next year as well.

GTI took a major step promoting exports

At GTI’s booth, many overseas buyers consulted about the enterprises and their products covered by the promotional materials; for example an Iranian customer looking for indoor game equipment; a well-known Turkish client inquiring about mini bowling products; A Saudi customer seeking rope net products as well as other professional buyers consulting about ticket machines, riding equipment, VR products, crane machines, basketball machines and water entertainment equipment. Those who were willing to discuss business contacted GTI for more detailed information.

In addition to publicity and data collection, GTI also interviewed with Ms. Nergis Aslan, the general manager of Tureks International Fair, which organized the ATRAX exhibition, on the development of Turkey’s games and entertainment, and visited several exhibitors, such as Ufuk Ercan, the owner of Tekno-set Elect. Ltd., a Turkish company. “We want to make the cooperation with Chinese companies. We are very glad. Every year, we are going much better and thank to the Chinese friends. Thank you for visiting us,” Ufuk Ercan said. Next year, ATRAX will be held on Feb. 13~15 at Istanbul Expo Center again!

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