Fair  will start formally on March 10 and lasted on March14. Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay, Germany Economy Minister Rainer Bruder and Berlin State Premier Klaus Wowereit were among the attendees.  Turkey’s biggest dance group Anatolia Dance Group staged wonderful performance in the beginning of the opening ceremony. Spectacular ceremony ended with a huge banquet which given one of the biggest restaurants chain Sahan.

This year Turkish is dominantly presenting herself with its rich cultures. Turkish minister Gunay said Turkey has granted as guest country and deserved this because Turkey overcome all difficulties of the global crises. “We are not considering which civilizations made the culture we are respecting all cultures whichever civilizations had created it. It is not so important Jewish, Christian or Muslim We respect to all cultures,” Gunay noted. 

Berlin State Premier Wowereit said at the beginning of the 2009 we could not predict how the tourism develops. As you know tourism one of the sector which directly affecting from the crises. We saw that tourism was not so affected from the crises as we see in the Berlin Tourism Bourse.

Germany Economy Minister Bruder began his opening speech by delivering his condolences those who have lost their life and their relatives. Bruder later made a joke and said I become an economy minister only to make the opening speech in the ITB. One of the most prestigious fair covers 160.000 square meters and nearly 11.127 companies are participate from 187 countries. Germany expects 170.000 visitors this year.