ISIS Safe Tourism Certification Changes on 08/03/2022
Foreword
Dear industry partners, The Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism continues Safe Tourism certification across a wide geography and many facilities with different characteristics. With the new tourism season approaching and in a period where the effects of the global pandemic have decreased, the Ministry published updated criteria on 08.03.2022 in line with the course of the pandemic and national tourism policies. The published criteria are open to multifaceted interpretations as they cover our wide country geography and facilities of various scales.
Laws, regulations, circulars, or technical documents have heavy writing styles. They must be well understood and interpreted to allow both theoretical and practical work on them. As ISIS, we also aimed this purpose. We hope this informative report we provide to our accommodation facilities will be beneficial.
Why Did the Criteria Change?
Worldwide and in our country, the increase in vaccination and immunization numbers, more people's desire to travel, many countries easing restrictions, the fact that temperatures will rise in the northern hemisphere where we are located, and the need to announce criteria without delay before the new season to gain a larger share in the global tourism market required changes. Although daily death numbers in our country due to the global pandemic have not decreased, it is important to first make changes in restrictions in the tourism sector.
Other countries worldwide have announced or are announcing their global pandemic combat decisions before the new season. Our country changed the Safe Tourism certification criteria to adapt them to current conditions to gain as much share as possible from the 2022 global tourism market. With every criteria change, our perspective should be to continue the successful lessons we applied during a crisis that truly brought the world to a halt like the global pandemic.
We should focus on evaluating Safe Tourism certification criteria in facilities with environmental, sustainable, and economic perspectives. As ISIS, we also aim and recommend continuing our successful lessons with an environmental, sustainable, and economic approach. We hope this informative text we provide to our accommodation facilities will be useful and that the new tourism season will be successful.
Respectfully,
Sade, 10.03.2022
New Regulations We Will Implement
- Not translating the prepared wall charts into at least 3 languages,
- Not providing guests with written information at reception about Covid-19 hygiene measures taken and rules guests must follow,
- Not measuring temperatures of guests and staff, but continuing temperature measurement in the Mini Club,
- Not recording or documenting training, motivation, and psychological support records of staff regarding processes,
- Allowing guests and employees to directly use shared tea/coffee machines, water dispensers, beverage machines, and similar devices without a staff member serving, ensuring their cleaning,
- Replacing the phrase "cleaning with alcohol-based products" for tabletop equipment (except disposable ones) with simply "cleaning,"
- Not keeping alcohol-based products on tables,
- Not placing hand antiseptics or 70% alcohol-containing wipes/liquids on tables,
- Allowing guests and employees to take food from open buffets without any barrier; plexiglass or glass buffet protections may be removed,
- Using dispensers disinfected after each guest use in rooms,
- Not limiting guest usage time in sauna, hammam, steam bath areas to a maximum of 30 minutes and switching to a cleaning plan for the facility,
- Not regulating entrance and exit times or limiting the number of people in fitness centers,
- Not recording guests using sauna, hammam, steam bath, or salon areas,
- No restrictions on child acceptance provided social distancing is observed,
- All passengers must wear masks during service; masks will be available at facility entrance upon request,
- Staff serving guest isolation rooms and involved in waste management and pest control must wear masks,
- Purchasing staff will not wear personal protective equipment,
- Minimal human contact will be ensured with purchased goods,
- In emergencies or when a patient, symptomatic, or suspected case is detected, the ALO 184 hotline and the staff responsible for certificate tracking at the facility will be informed,
- Information about contacts and institutions to be reached in emergencies will be shared,
- Guests will be isolated in their rooms, and an information form will be prepared regarding this,
- The obligation for hotels to inform about test fees will be removed according to the announced criteria.
Changes in Criteria
The changes in criteria are based on the differences between the Safe Tourism Certification accommodation facility criteria published on 29.06.2021 – V1 and the 08.03.2022 – V2 Safe Tourism Certification accommodation facility criteria.
| Section | Previous Number of Criteria | Number of Criteria After Revision |
|---|---|---|
| Section A | 32 | 23 |
| Section B | 5 | 5 |
| Section C | 6 | 5 |
| Section D a) | 3 | 3 |
| Section D b) | 28 | 28 |
| Section D c) | 7 | 5 |
| Section D d) | 6 | 6 |
| Section D e) | 6 | 4 |
| Section D f) | 2 | 2 |
| Section D g) | 15 | 15 |
| Section E | 5 | 3 |
| Section F | 4 | 3 |
| Section G | 2 | 2 |
| Section H | 7 | 7 |
| Section I | 6 | 6 |
| Section İ | 7 | 5 |
| Section J | 19 | 14 |
| Section K | 3 | 3 |
| Section L | 5 | 4 |
| Section M | 5 | 4 |
Details and Comments on Criteria Changes
A. Mandatory Application Process Management, Setting Standards, Preparing Protocols
In this section, the first six questions have been restructured, clarified, and shortened. Four questions were formed from the initial six. The revision includes criteria on responsible personnel, procedures and protocols informing all departments and units, and taking necessary actions.
Item 9. Are people staying in the same room (family, etc.) considered as a group in social distancing rules? This criterion has been canceled due to the high numbers of fully vaccinated, booster dose, and recovered individuals.
Additionally, in the revision criteria;
- Are periodic basic trainings planned for employees working within the facility regarding the plans and protocols to be applied?
- Are trainings conducted for employees according to the planned protocols?
There is not a significant difference between these two questions; they could have been combined.
Item 17 in the previous certification criteria, "Have the prepared wall charts been translated into at least 3 languages?" is not present in the new revision. It seems to have been overlooked.
Item 20 in the previous certification criteria, "Are guests provided with written information at reception about Covid-19 hygiene measures and rules they must follow?" is not present in the new revision.
We will no longer provide Covid-19 information to guests. However, it is useful to remind measures in common areas. (Comment)
Item 18 in the previous certification criteria, "Are sufficient capacity UV devices installed at the outlets of central mechanical ventilation/air conditioning systems that do not take 100% fresh air from outside?" No product or company has received a license for UV devices in our country so far. I do not find it correct to insist on repeating this criterion.
For facilities without central ventilation/air conditioning systems, are mobile HEPA filters (tested according to EN 1822 standard with H13 or H14 filters) used in closed common areas in numbers and power appropriate to the cubic meters of the area? This criterion needs to be measurable considering the recent Interior Ministry circular and statements by our Health Minister about insufficient ventilation. Using CO2 meters in closed areas is appropriate.
Has Temperature Measurement Been Removed? The items mandating temperature measurement in the previous certification criteria have been removed.
Summary of Criteria Changes
- 25. Is natural ventilation performed in the premises when necessary?
- 26. Are body temperatures checked with thermal cameras or contactless thermometers at the entrance of guests and employees and at employees' exit?
- 27. Are recorded body temperature measurements subject to verification?
- 28. Are actions defined if a temperature outside the accepted range is detected based on verification?
- 29. Are actions taken for out-of-range temperature detections recorded?
Where Will We Get Trainings From? Item 22 in the previous certification criteria, "Are hygiene training records approved by relevant NGOs (TÜROB, TÜROFED, TÜRYİD, etc.) or the Ministry of National Education (MEB) available in employee files?" Although MEB-approved hygiene trainings are legally available, why are trainings from relevant NGOs not utilized together with quality departments in facilities? These departments practically manage this work.
C. Measures and Applications for Personnel
Item 3 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Are training, motivation, and psychological support records for staff regarding processes recorded in personal files?
D. Arrangements in Common Areas
c) Food & Beverage Units
- Guests and employees will be able to directly use tea/coffee machines, water dispensers, beverage machines, and similar devices.
- Item 3 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Have shared tea/coffee machines, water dispensers, beverage machines, and similar devices been removed or arrangements made for drinks to be served to guests by staff?
- Item 4 in the previous certification criteria has been changed. Are dining tables, furniture, and tabletop equipment (except disposable ones) cleaned with alcohol-based products after each customer's use? The phrase "cleaning with alcohol-based products" has been replaced with "cleaning," which is open to interpretation.
- Hand antiseptics or 70% alcohol-containing wipes/liquids will not be placed on tables.
- Item 5 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Are hand antiseptics or 70% alcohol-containing wipes/liquids present on tables?
- Guests will be able to take food from open buffets.
- Item 6 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. If the "Open Buffet" application continues, is there a glass partition preventing guests from touching food and a service counter allowing staff to serve guests? Are measures in place for staff to serve requested food to guests?
e) Fitness Centers & SPA
- Guest usage time in sauna, hammam, steam bath areas will not be limited to a maximum of 30 minutes, and a daily cleaning plan will be implemented.
- Item 1 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Was guest usage time limited to 30 minutes with at least 15 minutes cleaning after in sauna, hammam, steam bath areas?
- Entrance and exit times and number of people in the fitness center will not be limited.
- Item 2 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Are entrance and exit times and number of people limited?
- Guests using sauna, hammam, steam bath, and salon areas will not be recorded.
- Item 3 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Are guests using these areas recorded?
G) Mini Club
Child acceptance will have no restrictions provided social distancing is observed. Item 2 in the previous certification criteria, "Is child acceptance done with a reservation system and social distancing capacity?" has been changed to "Is child acceptance done with social distancing capacity?"
Items 4 and 5 in the previous certification criteria remain unchanged.
Are children’s temperatures measured and recorded at entry? Are families informed and children with 38 degrees or higher taken from the club and referred to a health institution?
E. Security
Item 2 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Are processes defined to minimize manual searches of guests (except x-ray), including mask use, single-use gloves, face shields for each search, and hand washing or cleaning afterward?
F. Hotel Vehicles
- All passengers must wear masks during service.
- Masks will be available at facility entrance upon request.
- Staff serving guest isolation rooms and involved in waste management and pest control must wear masks.
- Item 4 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Are necessary measures taken for employee and guest safety when valet service is provided?
İ. Purchasing, Goods Acceptance, and Storage
- Purchasing staff will not wear masks or gloves.
- Minimal human contact will be ensured with purchased goods.
- Item 4 in the previous certification criteria has been removed. Do employees in this section use personal protective equipment?
- Item 6 in the previous certification criteria: "Are necessary measures taken to minimize human contact with goods from supplier to storage?"
I. Emergency and Isolation
- In emergencies or when a patient, symptomatic, or suspected case is detected, the ALO 184 hotline and the staff responsible for certificate tracking at the facility will be informed.
- Information about contacts and institutions to be reached in emergencies will be shared.
- Guests will be isolated in their rooms.
- An information form will be prepared regarding this.