Tourism... One of the most important areas that should be the showcase of a country, introducing its culture, history and people to the world. But unfortunately, tourism guidance in Turkey has rapidly moved away from the ethical line it should be and has turned into a “guidance and exploitation system”.
Guiding profession requires knowledge, culture and honesty. A guide's job is to tell tourists about the history of the country, direct them to the right and reliable places and enrich their experiences. However, today, in many places, this profession has been handed over to the brokerage system. Tourists are seen not as guests but as “spending potential”.
Some of the guides make deals with restaurants, carpenters, jewelers or souvenir shops to get a percentage of every tourist they take. Do you know what this means? The tourist is no longer free. The place to go, the food to eat, the product to buy are predetermined. The words “this is the best restaurant” coming out of the guide's mouth often represent not the truth, but the commission to be pocketed.
This system targets not only foreign tourists but also domestic travelers. In many touristic regions of Anatolia, people unwittingly fall victim to inflated prices, poor quality service and directed shopping. This is a system where a soup is sold at three times the price, or an ordinary product is marketed as “handmade, special” and offered at exorbitant prices.
What is more painful is that this system also eats away at the country's reputation. When a tourist visiting Turkey returns home feeling ripped off, he or she takes not only the money out of his or her pocket but also the bad impression in his or her mind. In the long run, this harms tourism, artisans and the country's economy.
The real issue here is not just a few opportunistic guides or businesses. The problem is the lack of supervision and the normalization of this rotten system. This system, which is legitimized with the excuse that “everyone is doing it”, also excludes honest guides and businesses from competition.
The tourism sector is too valuable to be sacrificed to short-term greed for profit. Guiding should be done with knowledge and ethics, not with commission books. Otherwise, every unjust money earned today means thousands of tourists to be lost tomorrow.
The truth must be spoken clearly: You don't get rich by ripping off tourists, but you impoverish the reputation of the country.
If this order does not change, Turkey will be known not as a country that grows in tourism, but as a country that shoots itself in the foot.