The “problem of refugees” predicted for Turkish resorts, who lost their roofs during a terrible earthquake in early February, will quickly worsen in mid-March. So, the other day, a mass eviction of this category of guests began in hotels in Turkey: victims of the earthquake, who live in hotels, were invited “to leave” since the tourist season will begin in 2 weeks, and the hotels should have time to organize themselves.
However, what to do with the victims is completely unclear, there is no “government plan” to provide them with housing instead of hotels. And on the other hand, humanity enters into sharp contradictions with the requirements of the business – the “refugee factor” adds problems to hotels and becomes another reason for the mass refusal of tourists to make reservations.
According to the Turkish media, the refugees were asked to “leave” in Antalya hotels already on March 10. “We regret to inform you that we will serve you until March 10, 2023, due to the opening date and renovation of our hotel. We kindly ask you to notify the reception of your departure date by March 10, 2023,” – quotes a statement from one of the hotels.
At the same time, as the victims say, they do not know what to do next. “The house where we lived is in terrible condition, it is standing, but its walls fell on us, and we miraculously survived. However, a report was given about “insignificant damage”, but we can’t live there – it’s dangerous to even enter it, – said representatives of one of the families. As the victims reported, there are about 13 people in this hotel, and about 1,000 earthquake victims are housed in the surrounding area. “The hotel management asked us to evacuate. The lack of any planning of what to do next is the main problem for us. We plan to return to Hatayu in the future, but we can’t at the moment – but already on March 10, the victims of the earthquake, who are housed in the hotel, have to move out. We understand that the tourist season will start, but why doesn’t the state have any plan?”, refugees from Alanya complain.
We will remind you that immediately after the earthquake, hotels in all popular tourist provinces opened their doors to refugees – among them Antalya, Mugla, Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, and Nevsehir. The number of earthquake victims housed in hotels exceeded 100,000 people. Hotels have announced that they will accept earthquake victims until March 15, when the tourist season begins.
At the same time, let’s add: the presence of refugees in hotels has already caused serious problems for businesses. Tourists from other countries, on whose foreign currency infusions hoteliers and tour operators rely heavily on, are still frightened by the February earthquake and related panic forecasts. And they also don’t really want to settle for their money next to the victims.
This picture is observed in all major markets. In Germany, for example, the number of bookings by German tourists for tours to Turkey stopped sharply after the February earthquake. This information was provided by the German analytical agency Travel Data & Analytics (TDA). According to them, tourists “prefer to wait and see what happens.” Experts admit that the problem of refugees, who are currently staying in hotels in Antalya and other resorts in Turkey, also played a role. Read details at this link.