Türkiye‘s Safe Tourism Certification Program’ defines and advises an extensive series of measures to be taken with regards to transportation and accommodation of all Turkish citizens and international visitors who will spend their holidays in Türkiye as well as the well-being and health conditions of passengers/guests and of employees working at touristic facilities

Establishments that wish to apply for this verification program, which is compulsory for the facilities with 30 and more rooms since 01.01.2021 and non-compulsory for facilities with less then 30 rooms and for other defined areas are able to do so by applying to authorized international accreditation institutions.

One of the first of its kind, Safe Tourism Certification Program led by Culture and Tourism Ministry has been developed with the contributions of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in cooperation with all the stakeholders in the industry.

Accreditation institutions that have been authorized to inspect accommodation facilities, food &beverage facilities, tour and transfer vehicles, culture, art and congress facilities, theme parks, ski lift and sea tourism facilities based on various international standards and criteria to issue Safe Tourism Certification Program verification conduct hygiene and health inspections and do compliance assessments. Following those inspections and assessments, the institutions put their findings in reports and then periodically send inspectors to facilities which have applied to the program to check whether the services are provided according to the criteria.

Facilities which have received the verification also be announced on Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s website. The Safe Tourism Certification logo is placed on visible areas inside the verified facility. There are QR codes on all logos and through these QR codes, all guests and customers have access to facility’s inspection data. This way, the whole process have gained transparency.

Verification Process and Conditions

• Periodic inspections will be conducted monthly.
• Inspection process will be completed in one day.
• There will be no remote inspection.
• In addition to monthly periodic inspections, there will be monthly secret customer inspections / inspections without notice. These inspections will be reported, additionally. These will be included in the quotation and no additional fees will be requested.
• Verification process will be completed maximum within three days following the field inspection.
• If during inspections, non-compliance with given criteria are identified, the facility will be warned and if such non-compliance continues, the facility’s verification will be cancelled.
• There will be a QR code on the verification document which will be provided after the inspection. The QR code will be accessible for everyone and when scanned, details including date of inspection, name of inspector, deficiencies and inadequacies that have been eliminated after the inspection and other details regarding inspection.
• Inspection report will include essential security elements.
• After the inspection, stickers which will be placed on the entrance doors and other visible areas inside the facilities will be delivered to the facilities. The facility will be accountable and liable for these stickers.
• In the quotation, the Inspector fees will be fixed.
• The quotation will include cost of documents and stickers, however, will not include other costs arising from transportation and inspections.
• Prices will be given in TL currency excluding VAT on a monthly basis and will be valid until the end of 2020.
Besides these TURKAK-approved inspection and verification institutions listed above, other companies or corporations that would like to be part of the program will be able to do so if they have the required qualifications and if they are accredited by TURKAK. For information on other accreditation institutions that have the required standards please visit: www.turkak.org.tr

Criteria for Corporations and Companies to be Authorized for Accreditation:

Institutions that have been authorized to inspect accommodation facilities, food &beverage facilities, tour and transfer vehicles, culture, art and congress facilities, theme parks, ski lift and sea tourism facilities based on international standards have been determined after conferring with NGOs such as TUROB, TUROFED and TURYID. The qualifications and competencies of these institutions have also been approved by Turkish Accreditation Agency. Accreditation institutions that wants to be included in Safe Tourism Certification Program must comply with the criterias below:

• ISO 17020 certified. ISO 17020 is an international standard that specifies accreditation requirements for institutions that provide inspection services to inspection bodies (TURKAK)
• ISO 17021 certified. ISO 17021 is an international standard that specifies accreditation requirements for intuitions that provide system certification services.
• Experience in inspection of food hygiene and safety, occupational health and safety, environmental management systems.
• To have the ability to prepare a team of competent and qualified inspectors with internal/external resources.
• To be an international and accredited brand and have been operating in at least 5 different countries, min 2 of them must be in Europe (except Türkiye), for a year under the name of their own brand or with a franchise agreement issued between the accredited parties.
• To be a brand that has executed at least 50 international certificates regulated in standard norms in min 5 different countries each. (except Türkiye)

Other evaluation criteria for institutions who wish to be authorized for accreditation are as follows:

• Applicant institution shall not operate in any other product manufacturing business and shall only operate in the field of inspection, analysis and control.
• Applicant institution shall be an independent institution with no conflict of interest.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which has implemented certification processes for hotel businesses, will announce the facilities participating in the verification program through all channels, including the Ministry’s website as of June 01, 2020