Decor January-February 2019

Carpet stores in Sultanahmet and Grand Bazaar are
working in parallel with the tourism sector. Could
you tell us about your recent tourism sector and
your predictions about 2020?
Certainly the tourism sector is working together with
the retail carpet market. For the last 3-4 years the
tourism and carpet industry has gone through low
seasons. As of 2019, the increase in the number of
tourists affected the carpet sector positively. In 2020,
I believe that we will have a more lively season both
in terms of the number of visitors and the quality of
tourists. In addition, I believe that ship tourism will
have an impact on this vitality with the opening of the
port of Galataport.
What is the contribution of sectoral fairs? Can we
listen to your evaluations about these fairs you
attended?
Fairs are very important meeting areas for the carpet
sector.
As Fatih Halı we have been in international fairs for
years and we will take part in that.
However, in the last few years, efficiency in fairs has
decreased. Online shopping has increased. It is now
an important platform for our industry in online sales
as far as fairs. As carpets, I think we should give more
importance to e-commerce.
116 DECOR • January - February 2020