Accommodation sector begins preparations for the new period...

Müberra Eresin, President of the Association of Turkish Hoteliers (TÜROB), made the following assessment regarding the circular titled Normalization Process in Accommodation Facilities published by the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism:

Taking into account the bringing of the outbreak under control in our country and developments in other countries, we hope that, even if slowly, activity in the tourism and accommodation sector will begin to pick up as of the second week of June. We particularly wish to emphasize that we place human life at the center of our concerns and that we put human health ahead of every kind of commercial expectation. We are making all our preparations for the day when the public authorities will say "you can now leave your homes," and we are preparing our hotels for the days after coronavirus. Of course, the most important part of these preparations consists of the sector practices that will undergo change after the COVID-19 outbreak. With the circular published by the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the measures to be taken within accommodation businesses that are currently operating or that will begin operating, aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, have been announced. Many of these measures are rules that we in the accommodation sector already generally apply. With the newly launched practices, the rules will be observed with even greater sensitivity. The practices will be updated over time depending on the process. Throughout this process we will cooperate with all our members and will provide our members with every support.

In addition, we believe that the Healthy Tourism Certification program announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will, taking into account above all consumer confidence, employee safety, and positive perception, definitely make a great contribution to our sector going forward. Consumer sensitivity regarding hygiene and COVID-19 measures will increase. Businesses that take measures on these matters are expected to be preferred first by consumers.

Both the normalization process in accommodation facilities and the certification program were prepared with our views also being taken into account as TÜROB. We see that a large portion of our recommendations have been taken into consideration. As NGOs, we exchanged information and views with all the Ministries, foremost the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Human health is our priority, and for this reason we found the recommendations of our Ministry of Health, in particular, entirely appropriate and did not make any proposal for them to be changed. We extend our thanks to the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health for this process.