Prominent names of the world tourism sector came together at the World Tourism Forum Global Meeting, a two-day global event, which took place on Feb. 16-18 in the Istanbul Congress Center. The event hosted nearly 150 international speakers from over 20 countries, including top executives of the world's leading tourism companies, tourism investors, public organizations, academics, technology experts, political authorities, nongovernmental organizations and Turkish and international tourism authorities.
Influential people in the tourism sector were also invited to the forum, including internet phenomenon Zach King, who is featured in Turkish Airlines (THY) security demos. King, an illusionist who has more than 17 million followers around the world was in Istanbul on Friday as part of the "World Tourism Forum Global Meeting" event where he shared his success story of being an internet phenomenon.
Giving an interview to Daily Sabah, King, said that Turkey is a country that offers very good frames in terms of shooting. Zach said that he is thinking of shooting more videos in Turkey and that he has come to Istanbul for some European shoots because it saves a lot of money on taxes, and there are good production rights in Istanbul, which is a great benefit. Zach also indicated that he would bring some of his productions to Turkey for commercials. Talking about their recent cooperation with THY, Zach said it is still an ongoing partnership and they hope they will create more and more content with THY as they move forward.
When asked about the global refugee issue and whether they have any projects in mind, Zach said: "I think that heavy issues such as this one are valid and important to tell. We want to draw attention to something like this. We have many followers on all accounts. Of course, it is something that we would like to do something about. It would be very nice, and I think there is a way to do that." Since they haven't discussed what content related to the refugee issue would look like, he said, "However, we know that it is a really important issue. Maybe we are not directly talking about politics or the issue of refugees and families, but hopefully we can bring smiles to youths through the contents of our videos."
King to shoot a short film in Cappadocia
Speaking about his experience in Istanbul and other cities in Turkey, Zach said: "Someday I want to come back on a personal vacation to Turkey and visit cities other than Istanbul since I have only been in Istanbul during my previous visits. Many people told us about Cappadocia, which is a very beautiful and colorful place and that we should go and film there. Someday, maybe in a couple of years, we will come back and film there." When asked whether he could estimate how much he contributes to the tourism of the countries he makes videos in, he said, "It is really hard. I don't think I could ever measure how many people go somewhere because of our videos, but we do hopefully bring awareness of different places." He added that his team consists of 16 people.
