Tourists get sick of noise and pollution in Muğla

MUĞLA - Anatolia News Agency

Tourists visiting Muğla’s districts complain about noise and pollution most. AA photo

Among the 995 calls received by Alo 179 Call and Information Center, which was put into service last year in the Aegean province of Muğla by the Governor’s Office, tourists complain about noise, environmental and sea pollution most.

One of Turkey’s most important tourism centers, Muğla hosts nearly 3 million tourists a year. The call center aims to find urgent solutions to problems complained about by tourists.

Muğla Deputy Gov. Ahmet Ali Barış said the call center served 24 hours a day, seven days a week in three shifts. The personnel are educated people who speak English, German, French, Russian and Persian fluently.

“This center contributed to the development of tourism in the city and decreased problems. Other cities also began making the same system, too. Our goal is to send tourists back without having any problems in Turkey.”

Barış said that thanks to the system they could see local problems in the region and could intervene quickly. “In 2012 the call center received 995 complaints. Of them, 231 were about noise, 75 were about environmental and sea pollution and 25 were about street vendors.

He said the complaints about noise were especially common late at night. “We built an accommodation facility right next to a street with bars in a touristic town. But the number of complaints about it decreases every other year.”

Barış said foreign tourists in the city mostly visited the coves. As for street vendors, Barış said the problem had decreased in the region in recent years thanks to legislative regulations.