ISTANBUL

Türkiye's premier technology, aviation and space event, TEKNOFEST, welcomed 1.03 million visitors this week in Istanbul, the event announced late Sunday on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.

The five-day event at Ataturk Airport, which opened last Wednesday, was organized by the Turkish Technology Team (T3) Foundation and Türkiye’s Industry and Technology Ministry.

TEKNOFEST has been held since 2018 with the support of dozens of government bodies, private sector partners and universities, and Anadolu has been serving as a global communications partner for the festival.

"My gratitude goes to everyone who walked this path with us in the TRNC, the Blue Homeland and Istanbul," said Selcuk Bayraktar, the director of the event.

Standing out with its annually renewed competition categories, TEKNOFEST featured 58 main and 137 subcategories.

More than one million people from 96 countries applied for TEKNOFEST competitions this year.

The event has traditionally been held in different Turkish cities in even-numbered years and in Istanbul in odd-numbered years.

It was also held in two foreign countries: Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Blue Homeland, TEKNOFEST's maritime edition, was held in Istanbul last month.

Including the TRNC and Blue Homeland events, TEKNOFEST has welcomed around 1.5 million visitors this year.

The event in the southern Turkish city of Adana attracted approximately 1.1 million visitors in 2024, with a total attendance of around 11 million to date.