Tourism sector mobilizes for quake victims: Hotels with beds ready for use

By Mesude Demirhan

The tourism sector, which is mobilized to quickly provide accommodation for earthquake victims; hotels in many cities from Samsun to Cappadocia opened their doors to citizens affected by the disaster. The number of rooms allocated by the hotels in 21 regions reached 25 thousand and the number of beds reached 75 thousand.

Answering the questions about the accommodation mobilization, Oya Narin, President of the Tourism Investors Association of Turkiye (TTYD), said that they have been working together with the Tourism Advisory Board, TURSAB, TUSID, TUROFED, TUROB, TURYID, and the Marine Tourism Association as the entire tourism sector since the first day of the earthquake disaster. Narin explained that all the relevant associations in the sector warned the members and hotels and they quickly prepared for the process.

Narin, who stated that they took action from the first day and opened the doors of the hotels to the earthquake victims, and gave the following information:

“We started to welcome our guests from the earthquake region as of the February 8th evening. In the first place, in order to host quake victims in Gaziantep, Diyarbakir, Adana, Cappadocia, Antalya, Alanya, Manavgat, Fethiye, Bodrum, Marmaris, Kusadas?, Izmir, Denizli, Afyon, Mersin, Canakkale, Balikesir, Bursa, Ankara, Bolu, and Samsun, we allocated approximately 25 thousand rooms and 75 thousand beds.”

Narin, who stated that the works are carried out in coordination between sector representatives, NGOs, and relevant public institutions, emphasized that they plan to increase this number further, according to the need. Noting that earthquake survivors from different provinces were placed in hotels in the provinces, Narin said,

“We estimate that the 75 thousand beds determined at the first stage will be filled in a short time. Here, the first step begins with AFAD. It organizes the placement of earthquake victims in hotels. Therefore, our citizens should first apply to AFAD Coordination Centres in their regions.”

Oya Narin also made a call to hotels that are willing to provide accommodation.

“Apart from the hotels that have been put into service so far, many of our hotels continue to apply to host our earthquake survivors. Within this framework, the number of hotels in 21 regions is increasing day by day and the victims continue to be resettled. There are also links created for support purposes on the internet. But the most important point is that our citizens must first apply to AFAD and register there," she added.