It was announced here today that it will host the 36th European Olympic Committees (EOC) annual seminar, an event that will be organised by the National Olympic Committee of Turkey. 

The success of last month's six-day event, held at the Susesi Convention Center and which attracted more than 1,600 delegates, was widely praised by several leading figures, including Olympic International Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach and Marius Vizer, President of SportAccord International Convention.

Antalya is region billed as a "developing sports hub" which recently hosted the 2013 World Archery Championships and earlier this month hosted the 2014 Turkish Airlines Ladies Golf Open, part of the Ladies European Tour.

Belek's hosting of this year's SportAccord International Convention was widely praised ©SportAccord

The EOC Seminar, due to be held at a venue still to be announced on May 14 and 15, will feature only around 250 delegates but will assume extra importance because it will take place less than a month before the opening of the inaugural European Games in Baku on June 12.

It will also be one of the final opportunities that the cities bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics have to showcase their campaigns before the IOC Session votes on the winner in Kuala Lumpur on July 31.

A shortlist of Candidate Cities is due to be chosen by the IOC's ruling Executive Board at its meeting in Lausanne on July 8 and 9.

Five cities are currently bidding - Almaty, Beijing, Kraków, Lviv and Oslo.

Patrick Hickey, President of the EOC and member of the IOC Executive Board, is confident Belek will deliver another successful event.

"It is an absolutely fantastic location and venue," he said following the announcement which closed this year's Seminar. 

"The Turkish NOC did a superb organisation with SportAccord so they can handle this in a very good way."

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