Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center Grand Kartal Hotel, on the night of January 21, the fire, led by Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy “Safe and Sustainable Tourism” targets made questioning. According to official statements after the disaster, there were 238 registered people in the hotel, while the number of employees is still not shared. 79 people were killed in the fire, dozens of people were injured. This heavy balance sheet points to the undisputed and illegal activities of the hotel bosses and the inadequate control and condensation of the authorized institutions.
The boss violated the rules for the sake of profit
Grand Kartal hotel owner and management of the profit on everything, the understanding of the event reveals behind the actual scenes. Renovations and incomplete security measures in the building; Only a few rings of the chain of neglect. According to the fire reports, the building of the building +25.41 bad (12th floor) architectural floor plan, which appears to be the elevator floor, was used in the form of a king apartment and elevator machine apartment. This reveals that the hotel is already “ready to burn, and that the relevant institutions are inadequate in this process.
The Power of TGA member bosses
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced that it will shape its tourism policies within a “safe and sustainable” framework as the head of the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), which was established on July 15, 2019. However, the agency’s membership structure leads to criticism to increase the weight of the hotel bosses in the sector. Ersoy included only one representative from TÜRSAB (Union of Travel Agencies of Türkiye), which has tens of thousands of members in TGA. Likewise, TUREB (Association of Tourist Guides), which provides the representation of 15 thousand guides, was not taken to the agency.
The exclusion of these two major sectors reveals how Ersoy’s discourse of “safe tourism” in fact opened its doors. Because the TGA member hotel bosses, which hold the biggest word in the sector, have become effective in many areas, from legislation to arrangements that will provide rent.
Ersoy’s laws to scythe
Minister Ersoy, in order to shape tourism unilaterally, first of all, the guides change the vocational law and took back the rights gained over the years. Then he tried to bring the TÜRSAB law to the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. However, as a result of the intense pressure of TÜRSAB President Firuz Bağlıkaya, this initiative remained fruitless. Apparently, in the eyes of Ersoy, the “obstacle” travel agencies of Turkish tourism and tourist guides were tourist guides.Yet Bolu Kartalkaya disaster, in fact your real obstacleHe who ignores the safety standards and tries to direct tourism by sitting on the same table with the Minister every month. Hotel has proved painful bosses.
Disaster and debate
Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, political power and other relevant representatives and the bosses of the hotel business, this disaster stands out as the names of responsibility. The “profit -oriented” approach of the hotel owner and inadequate inspections of the relevant authorities prepared a ground for a fire in which 79 people lost their lives. More importantly, TGA, which is expected to represent all its stakeholders of tourism, has eliminated the multiplexes and effective measures necessary for the prevention of such disasters.
Concerns for the Future
The authorities that shape the tourism of Türkiye can no longer ignore the lack of audit and the stretching of the legislation. Grand Kartal Hotel Fire, Sustainable Tourism your securityjust one ” marketing slogan”He is painful that he should not remain. The expert reports and the facts that have emerged raise the following question in the public opinion: “Does the ministry and TGA want really safe tourism ‘, or is it looking for the interests of the hotel bosses?”
In TGA, where the eyes are reinstanded after the disaster, the weakness of close relations and control mechanisms established with the hotel bosses should be put on the table once again. Otherwise, similar disasters will be inevitable in the tourism sector. Because every “flexibility” and inspections made in the legislation will continue to return as the loss of life and safety deficits.
Those who lost their lives in the Grand Kartal hotel fire once again showed what kind of disaster the chain of negligence could lead. Now, the question in mind is: “Minister Ersoy’s safe tourism targets, can these bosses get rid of the initiative?”The demand of all stakeholders and public opinion of the sector is to find a satisfactory answer to this question.
