Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey (Contributed photo)
ANKARA, Turkey – The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey has launched "Healthy Tourism Certification" program that will commence in the summer season of 2020.
A Healthy Tourism Certification, which is issued under the leadership of Ministry of Culture and Tourism and with the participation of Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and cooperation of all sector stakeholders, covers a broad range of measures that shall be taken towards transportation, accommodation, health condition of employees of the facilities and passengers.
The certificate, which shall be granted by international certification institutions, will document the fulfillment of a high level of health and hygiene requirements at airline companies, airports, and other transportation, accommodation, and food & beverage facilities.
According to Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, the country has been a role model for the world during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic with its well-established health system and treatment methods.
The certificate program, Ersoy said, demonstrates that Turkey will take a pioneering role in terms of setting the direction for the normalization of tourism.
“Today, global quarantine measures, which have been taken due to Covid-19, causing unique developments all around the world, are getting more flexible and tourism sector itself has a vital role in terms of returning to normal processes. The importance of caring for our guests in our culture leads us to be ready for the transition to healthy tourism prior to everyone,” he said. “Our certification program shall ensure that our guests in Turkey are going to make their holidays in a safe and hygienic manner and feel comfortable during their visit.”
He added that the program covers preventive and protective steps including air, marine and land transportation, arrival ports, all facilities providing a holiday experience, health condition of employees in the industry, and tourists themselves.
“We will encourage all of our transportation and accommodation facilities to take all precautions for a healthy holiday through obtaining the certificate,” he said.
4 main pillars
The Certification program of Turkey consists of 4 main pillars, namely: “Health and Safety of the Passenger”; “Health and Safety of the Employee”; “Precautions taken at Facilities”; and “Precautions taken in terms of “Transportation”.
“Health and Safety of the Passenger” covers the precautions that are required to be implemented in terms of passengers from the time of check-in until their check-out. It includes the following: not allowing passengers without a mask to enter respective terminals; providing free of charge masks to passengers; application of thermal camera and body temperature measurement at the entrance of terminal buildings; preparing disinfection carpets and disinfection cabins; and if required, apply the required protocols for the passengers that are diagnosed as a risk group in terms of traveling.
“Health and Safety of the Employee” covers precautions with respect to ensuring physically and mentally healthy personnel at transportation, accommodation, and food & beverage facilities. Procedures such as hygiene and sanitation trainings of the personnel, psychological support, providing required hygiene/health equipment, controlling of the personnel both with thermal cameras are required standards and also thermometers and planning shifts, holding meetings and regular health checks of personnel, etc. also comprise the pillar.
“Precautions taken at Facilities”, on the other hand, includes steps required in order to prevent the spread of the outbreak. In case of preventing such cases, processes that need to be implemented by accommodation, food & beverage facilities have been defined under the scope of the certificate. The certification ensures implementation and controlling of measures such as social distance, contact, isolation which are required to control the spread of pandemic within the personnel working in said facilities.
“Precautions taken in terms of Transportation Vehicles” includes certain measures and regulations for air, land, and marine transportation. Training of personnel of transportation vehicles, immunity certificate of the personnel, sterilization of transportation vehicles, and arrangement of passenger transportation system according to safe distance standards have been defined under the scope of the certificate.
Ersoy said as of May 4, 2020, they have completed pandemic and certification protocols issued separately in terms of airports, domestic airlines, highways, and tourism facilities.
“We are also planning to start the implementation of the certification process for hotels as of May. We will start listing the facilities, obtaining such certificate, as of June 1, 2020, through all channels including the website of our Ministry,” he added.
The Republic of Turkey, he said, is acting with a sense of responsibility in order to ensure both citizens and arriving guests feel comfortable during their visit.
“Latch string is always out!” (You are more than welcome). We have always taken this as the leading principle and we will continue to take necessary actions based on this principle,’’ he said referring to the hospitality of Turkish people. (Turkish Embassy Tourism & Information Office)
