The effectiveness of financial subsidies towards fairs and exhibitions in the development of exports analysis of the period between 1990-2005)

States develop policies with the aim of providing economicdevelopment and social welfare which are their basic targets and within thesepolicies they apply various incentive measures, mainly in the fields ofinvestment and foreign trade. Aids toward exports gained weight ever sinceour country shifted from a growth strategy based on import substitution to agrowth model based on export on January 24th 1980. Turkey?s exportsincreased 25 times via export subsidies applied for approximately 25 years.Fairs, besides being one of the a strongest methods in the increase ofexport, provide huge contributions to the economy of the organizer country.These events which we started to see more intensely as an effectivecommercial tool in the last quarter of the 21st century, became nowadays themilestone in some countries. Financial incentives toward fairs have beeninitiated in 1994 in our country. Ten thousands of companies opened theirstands in exhibitions across the country thanks to the incentives distributedto the participants within the state aids toward exports. The increase of exportfigures by supporting fairs? participants is a method used not only indeveloping countries like Turkey but also in developed countries such asGermany, France and Great Britain.The analysis of the impact of fair grants on export and the finding ofthe weaknesses are important in the perspective of increasing theeffectiveness of subsidies. In this thesis, the applications of theUndersecretary of Foreign Trade and other institutions which provide financialsupports to companies that participate in fairs are studied and the interactionbetween incentive figures and export figures are also analyzed. After exposingthe state aids in exports as a whole with the aim of forming the theoreticalinfrastructure of this study, the notion of fairs is introduced, the developmentfrom the past until today in this field in Turkey and worldwide is summarizedand the situation of the fairs sector in Turkey is exposed in figures.Keywords: 1) Fair 2) Export 3) State Aids Toward Export 4) FairSubsisies, Grants 5) Impact of Fair Grants on Export