Serious Concerns Expressed Again for Standards at The Holiday Village in Sarigerme, Turkey

Serious concerns are again being raised by HolidayTravelWatch over the health & safety standards at The Holiday Village, in Sarigerme, Turkey. Since May this year, the Organisation has received complaints from British holidaymakers concerning the standards and illnesses they have suffered at this hotel.

This is not the first time that HolidayTravelWatch has called for action to protect holidaymakers, our comments and press releases appear to have been largely ignored.

Our first press release on 17 August 2006, highlighted confirmed diagnoses of Salmonella, Shigella Flex and Entamoeba Histolylica at the then named Pegasus Palace Hotel (now The Holiday Village Sarigerme).

That same summer, 24 August 2006, we again highlighted the large numbers of confirmed cases of illness and the poor hygiene conditions at this hotel.

From June to October 2008, we placed a number of ’Call to Arms’ for The Holiday Village, Sarigerme on our website. This feature informs other holidaymakers that we have received complaints about a featured hotel or resort. As a result, we dealt with some 300 aggreived holidaymakers last year, who are now taking further action for holiday compensation.

During the summer of 2008, we again issued a press release expressing our concern for the safety standards and the large numbers of illnesses being suffered at this hotel. Within the press release, pertinent questions were asked about the role of the Turkish Authorities and the results and whereabouts of personal body samples provided by holidaymakers!

We were so concerned as to the problems experienced by British holidaymakers at this hotel, that we wrote an open letter (which was published on our website) to one tour operator, First Choice and never received or saw a written response to the serious concerns raised!

By October 2008, we again called for urgent action to protect the health & well-being of British holidaymakers at this hotel. We set out a series of action points for British and Turkish Health Authorities to deal with this serious problem! HolidayTravelWatch regrets to note that it appears that nothing was actioned by any British or Turkish Health Authority to protect the health of its citizens or visitors!

HolidayTravelWatch regrets to report that it has again received similar reports of holiday illness and poor hygiene practices in May, June and July of this year. Here are several comments from some of the affected holidaymakers:

"I cant believe what I am reading. We have just come back from the Holiday Village at Sarigarme where my eldest daughter was hospitalised with vomiting and diarrhoea and my youngest daughter started with the same the day she got back to the UK. She is having a stool test on Monday as she is still suffering. I cant believe this complex is still being allowed to receive guests! " (9343);

"we have just returned with our 2 and a half yr old daughter from holiday village saragerme turkey, where on day 4 out there she got very ill with what we thought was a tummy bug only to find when we got her home was salmonella" - Note this family also have a confirmed case of Cryptosporidium - (9390);

"went to holiday village,sarigerme, turkey became very ill within 48 hrs of arrival, told at first it was dehydration, very ill for 4 days, gastroenteritis, many other guests sick at the same time, [TOUR OPERATOR] did not offer any advise to guests about what to do to try to contain situation or how to deal with it once you had it, we should have been advised to stay away from other guests, pools etc. That is for those who could actually make it out of the room!! This is not going to go away and will only get worse unless something is done, I am still ill 8 days later, although Iam now home and will be seeing my own doctor tomorrow" (EM267).

Frank Brehany, the Senior Consumer Advocate for HolidayTravelWatch states:

"It is almost unbelievable that we are again here discussing the conditions at this hotel and the illnesses being suffered by returned holidaymakers. What kind of corporate thinking allows ordinary working people, who have saved very hard for that precious treat, to allow successive holidaymakers to suffer such conditions? Would the executives of these companies allow their families to ’enjoy’ the same kind of holiday"

He continues,

"It is outrageous, that despite clear warnings, not just from this Organisation but also from holidaymakers, that the British & Turkish Public Health Authorities do nothing to react to and deal with this situation. It is nothing short of a Public Scandal in both countries, I sincerely hope that at the very least, the British Health Authorities will wake up and act to protect holidaymakers and residents in this country from the threat of returning holiday illnesses! It begs the question; will they only act when a child or old person dies from infection"

He concludes,

The paralysis of fear that appears to infect the Authorities and the Tour Operators to do the right thing, must be broken. Whilst we are currently talking to a number of holidaymakers, we are also aware that there are many returned holidaymakers who were ill whilst staying at this hotel. I once again regret to say, the only way that the Authorities and the Travel Industry put right what has gone wrong, is for ordinary people to group together and act - any holidaymaker can contact us for Free Advice & Assistance. They can contact us by calling our helpline number - 08450179229, or by e mailing us at information@holidaytravelwatch.com ".

Contact Information

Frank Brehany

Senior Consumer Advocate

HolidayTravelWatch

Contact via E-mail