According to a report prepared by the Turkish Association of Travel Agencies (TURSAB), the number of tourists choosing underground tours will increase from last year's 350-400 thousand to 500 thousand this year.
Tours without any insurance or guarantees cause 850 million lira in damage to the economy, putting the lives and property of vacationers at risk. TURSAB President Başaran Ulusoy warned citizens not to put themselves and vacationers in danger for 20-100 lira a day. TURSAB, which launched a campaign against underground tours, investigated special offer websites and sued 8 of the 428 websites selling tours.
Around a million people set out to enjoy the holiday weekend, many of whom put their lives and money at risk by choosing underground tours. According to a report on underground tours prepared by the Turkish Association of Travel Agencies (TURSAB), it is estimated that around 350-400 domestic tourists chose to travel on underground tours last year, and this number will increase to 500 this year. The sale of such tours causes the Turkish economy to lose 850 million liras annually.
Underground tours have become a very large area in the Turkish tourism sector in recent years, despite the fact that TURSAB has been developing intensive control mechanisms together with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The vast underground tour sector involves agents who are not officially registered anywhere and who exploit people's holiday dreams for their own gain by using unsupervised mechanisms. TURSAB, which has been fighting illegal underground tours that threaten the tourism industry for many years, has recently decided to launch a special campaign against such tours. In addition, TURSAB has created a special unit to monitor websites selling tours on favorable terms over the Internet, thanks to which 428 websites have been sued.
Many vacationers, due to the low cost, prefer to buy tours from agencies and organizations that are not members of TURSAB, do not have special documents, and are therefore not controlled by anyone, and as a result, in the event of any negative incident, they may expose themselves to great danger. In this regard, TURSAB President Basharan Ulusoy said the following: "Unregistered travel agencies create unfair competition in the sector, on the other hand, due to lack of control, they endanger the lives and property of citizens. Our citizens should not focus only on the low price of tours, they should choose insured tours with a wide choice. An underground tour is cheaper by an average of 20-100 liras per day, this price is not worth ruining your vacation".
