Tourist hotels and hotspots in Turkey are still at risk of collapsing in catastrophic earthquakes, a year on from the deadly quakes that killed more than 50,000 people.
i has travelled to southern Turkey, along the border with Syria, to report on the aftermath of the 2023 earthquakes that razed parts of the country to the ground.
While rebuilding and retrofitting efforts are under way, experts have warned that both old and new hotels in tourist hotspots including Istanbul are among the buildings still at risk from catastrophic quakes.
David Alexander, Professor of Emergency Planning and Management at UCL, has spent time assessing structures in earthquake-prone countries including Turkey and said he has not “seen any evidence that hotels are necessarily better built than other structures” in the country.
“Even smaller earthquakes, of which there are a number, have caused spectacular building collapses in Turkey, despite the fact that we’ve known for a very, very long time how to build reinforced concrete buildings that will survive earthquakes,” he said.
Turkey is one of the most sought-after destinations for UK holidaymakers, with its popularity soaring in recent years.
Tourist hotspots such as Antalya and Istanbul remained largely unaffected by last year’s quake, but Professor Alexander warned that “the whole country is highly seismic from beginning to end” with a “massive earthquake risk in Istanbul.”
“The North Anatolian fault system runs across the entire country from one border to another and therefore passes very close to Istanbul, which is of course a major city of enormous proportions. That hasn’t generated a major earthquake for a long time, but when it does it’s going to be spectacularly awful.”
The Isias Hotel in the sourthern city of Antakya was among the hundreds of thousands of buildings which collapsed on 6 February 2023, killing 72 people.
This included a class full of children from northern Cyprus, along with their parents and chaperones, who had flown over to attend a volleyball tournament.
Prosecutors argue the tragedy could have been prevented had building safety standards been met; they claim the building was illegally converted from a home into a hotel and then an additional floor added without permission.
The hotel’s owner and other defendants deny all wrongdoing.
Iman Hajirasouliha, Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield and leader of the Earthquake Engineering Group, said that “many tourist areas, including Istanbul, are prone to strong earthquakes”.
Both old and new hotels and buildings could be susceptible to damage, he warned.
“Some of the old buildings, particularly in rural areas, were designed based on outdated standards or were constructed using substandard materials, poor construction practices, and inadequate detailing. These buildings typically cannot withstand high seismic loads, especially in the event of strong aftershocks,” he said.
Many new builds were also among buildings which collapsed on 6 February, 2023, despite advancements in safety regulations and knowledge.
Some new builds have insufficient “lateral weight-bearing structures” due to the removal of columns and walls, leading to “soft storey failure”, Professor Hajirasouliha said.
“[The Government] had a comprehensive scheme for strengthening old buildings. But enhancing the seismic performance of substandard structures to an acceptable level can be very complicated and costly, and in some cases, impractical,” he added.
“They have the knowledge – Turkey’s seismic design knowledge is very advanced – the biggest barrier would be the limited resources and construction control.”
Holiday bookings to Turkey dropped in the aftermath of the earthquake but recovered quickly, with Thomas Cook saying that Turkey experienced a “short-term reduction” but now remains “one of our most popular choices”.
“Bookings are up by 20 per cent year on year, with a significant rise among families. Bookings to Turkey at the start of 2023 were strong and did drop at the start of February for around two weeks but by mid-March were already back to the levels seen in January,” a spokesperson said.
No flights from the UK to Turkey were cancelled in the aftermath of the disaster, but several airports south-east of Turkey closed due to damage, including Hatay and Gaziantep Oğuzeli, with Hatay’s airport still shut a year later.
With many Turks dependent on tourism for their livelihoods, hoteliers also expressed hope the earthquake would not put off travellers.
The UK’s Foreign Office does not advise against travelling there except for areas less than 10km from the Syrian border.
Following the disaster, Firuz Bagilkaya, President of the Association of Travel Agencies of Turkey, said that the Government should make it possible for tourists to request an earthquake safety certificate from their hotel in a bid to increase confidence in the sector.
The Turkish tourism ministry were approached for comment.
