More US Tourists Coming to Turkey Thanks to Designer's Ad Campaign
An award-winning Turkish visual designer based in Los Angeles has helped increase American tourist numbers to his homeland by 30 percent thanks to a strategic advertising campaign.“Bringing tourists to Turkey is not only possible by taking the photos of the Maiden’s Tower, Ephesus and Ölüdeniz and advertising them in Times Square and The New York Times,” visual designer Emrah Yücel recently told Anatolia news agency. “A strategy is necessary behind this activity; it is necessary to know American people. We pay attention to give the right message in right times.”
Yücel won a job tendered by the Culture and Tourism Ministry and began a poster campaign earlier this year that used visuals resembling Hollywood movie posters to increase the number of U.S. visitors to Turkey from 100,000 to 130,000 over the previous year, according to official ministry data.
The designer, who has worked in Hollywood for many years, said his promotion team attached great importance to Easter and Thanksgiving, which are very important to Americans, as well as April 23 Children’s Day.
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), the largest U.S. chemicals manufacturer, and Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii (AKSA) AS, a Turkish maker of synthetic acrylic fibers, are in talks to form a joint venture to make carbon fiber and derivatives, the companies said.
Mehmet Oz becomes the eighth Turk to grace the cover of one of the world's most prestigious magazines, Time. The Turkish health guru known as Dr. Oz, who gained fame as the host for on a show on the American TV channel Fox, has become the eighth Turk to grace the cover of one of the world's most prestigious magazines, Time.
Following his visit to the United States to develop economic relations between Turkey and the U.S., the chairman of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, or TOBB, said he received extremely positive signals from his meetings despite the current picture of weak trade ties.
Istanbul, which ranked seventh in world congress tourism last year and sixth in Europe, has become an international convention destination, according to Murat Yalçıntaş, chairman of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, or ICOC. "By strengthening its position among the top 10 cities in world convention tourism, Istanbul should target to enter the top five in the next five years," said Yalçıntaş, who has also been the chairman of the Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau, or ICVB, since March 2006.
Career criminal Willie Sutton is credited with saying that he robbed banks, “because that’s where the money is,” and while Sutton later claimed to have never uttered that infamous line, he did say in his autobiography that criminals “go where the money is … and go there often.”
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan picked up another international award Sunday, winning the prestigious Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for his most recent work, “Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da” (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia).
Invest AD, an investment bank owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, is teaming up with a Japanese company to launch a $100 million buyout fund focused on Turkey.
Turkish politician and economist Kemal Derviş is the early frontrunner to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the International Monetary Fund.
The ATAA Board of Directors empowered a Nominations Committee, chaired by Ms. Lale Iskarpatyoti, a former ATAA VP, and served by President-Elect Ergun Kirlikovali, Past President Nurten Ural, Former President Tunca Iskir, and Former President and Founder Ulku Ulgur. All candidates were nominated and selected in strict accordance with the ATAA bylaws and procedures. Those candidates that were nominated expressed their voluntary and explicit agreement that the nomination of each was appropriate and that their candidacy met both the spirit and word of the ATAA charter, bylaws and mission. The Election Process was overseen by the Teller's Committee, which was approved by the Board of Directors. 
Turkey's top aerospace company and the Sierra Nevada Corporation, or SNC, a United States’ satellite company owned by a Turkish American, have agreed to cooperate to jointly make satellites for Middle Eastern companies, officials from both firms told the Hürriyet Daily News on Wednesday.
A few months back, economists were openly debating whether fast-growing Turkey should be elevated into the elite club of ‘BRIC’ economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — that are slated to dominate global growth over the next decades.
