Zow Turkey: advancing into hitherto unknown markets

Zow in Istanbul was the business event of the Turkish supply industry at the start of the year: from 17 to 20 January, the organizers Clarion Events Deutschland registered 246 national and international exhibitors at the Cnr Expo Center, as well as more than 16,000 trade visitors from around the world, including high-ranking decision-makers, architects and designers from the Turkish furniture industry, as well as numerous international purchasers, also from hitherto unknown African countries. With a new approach to exhibition planning and marketing, Clarion Events implemented the exhibitors’ wishes perfectly: a thoroughly convincing supplier platform with Turkish flair was realized in Istanbul in 2013. And the exhibitors were correspondingly satisfied with both the number of visitors and the quality of their exhibition contacts at this year’s ZOW in Istanbul.

The vast majority of trade visitors at Zow − namely 82 percent − once again came from Turkey, although a growing number of international industry representatives also came to Istanbul to find out more about the latest supply innovations. The foreign trade visitors primarily came from Iran and Iraq, Turkey’s western neighbours, such as Bulgaria and Greece, as well as Italy this year, together with a traditionally large contingent from the former Soviet republics. Purchasers from Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon and East African countries also attended in large numbers for the first time this year as a result of the organizers’ successful canvassing activities. In this way, Clarion Events promotes the interests of the Turkish industry which is striving to develop new export markets in Africa in view of the difficulties besetting the markets in the Near and Middle East, as well as parts of Europe.