The first of the people who lost their homes in the earthquake area have arrived in Alanya between Wednesday and Thursday night. Hotels closed for the winter season will be opened for temporary accommodation for evacuees.
Hotel owners in Alanya, Antalya and Side are preparing to open thousands of rooms for earthquake victims. Within a week, up to 120 hotels will open their doors for temporary accommodation for those who lost their homes in the earthquake.
– Most of the hotels are closed for the winter, and some of them are now opening. The staff at the hotels have been invited back to work to check the heating, water supply and the condition of the hotel rooms, says a board member of the Promotion and Development Agency of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Şükrü Cimrin.
During the week, around 50,000 people arrive in Antalya province by their own cars, buses and evacuation flights. According to Cimri, accommodation will be arranged for all visitors.
Turkey has started massive evacuation transports from the earthquake area to different parts of Turkey. Besides Antalya, those who lost their homes are brought to the southern province of Mersin. Evacuation flights have also been prepared in the province of Muğla, located on the Mediterranean coast.
– Two thousand beds are ready in Bodrum alone, says Cimrin.
Two large earthquakes occurred in the southern part of Turkey on Monday, February 6. As a result of the earthquakes, more than 19,300 people have died in Turkey and Syria. In addition, almost 63,000 people in Turkey and more than 5,000 people in Syria have been injured.
New apartments for those who lost their homes
Temporary accommodation is available in the Antalya area until the beginning of the summer tourist season. In April-May, European tourists start coming to Turkey again, and some of those who left due to the earthquake will return to their home region at that time. Replacement accommodation will be arranged for the rest.
– On the other hand, hotels are reserved for them, where they can stay even for a year.
The Turkish president who visited the southern province of Kahramanmaraş on Wednesday Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey will build new homes for those who lost their homes in disaster-stricken areas within a year. Kahramanmaraş province is located in the epicenter of a strong earthquake.
A record number of tourists to Turkey
At the same time as the rescue work of those trapped in the ruins continues in the disaster area, elsewhere in Turkey preparations are being made for a record-breaking tourist season.
Based on advance bookings, a record 60 million tourists are coming to Turkey in the summer season. In 2022, 51.4 million tourists visited the country, and the country’s tourism revenue increased to 46.3 billion dollars.
The earthquakes have not affected the number of travel reservations in Turkey, says the communications manager Laura Aaltonen TUI from Finland.
– The tourist areas are not located in the earthquake zone, and there has been no damage, says Şükrü Cimrin.
According to Cimri, part of the tourism income is used for reconstruction work, and that is why tourists are important to Turkey.