First is first; my heart bleeds over the enormous death toll we carry on our shoulders after the earthquake. It hurts to witness such a massacre!!! A fault line is a boundary between two tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust where there is significant movement and activity. When the plates move and shift against each other, it can cause earthquakes, volcanic activity, and other geological phenomena. Fault lines are often found near the edges of continents, along the ocean floor, or in areas where mountains are forming.
We can pinpoint fault lines, and hence when building, take precautions to the utmost level. I am not going into the details of how the regulation of building a structure should be, but with the recent earthquakes taking place in South-eastern Turkey, in 11 stats of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.6, I need to pinpoint a fact. Various hotels in the area have crumbled down and/or been damaged by the earthquake’s uncontrollable strength. Many lives have died! With this fact in our pockets and with the unfortunate truth of humans never learning or giving a damn, I would suggest that travel designers, tour operators and travellers in their means should be demanding an earthquake certificate from the hotels they use or will accommodate themselves. During the pandemic, we have seen that governments can quickly adapt, manoeuvre and put together a certificate given to those who check out the crucial obligations. Suppose you don’t get a tick in any of the commitments you are not certified.
They called it a safe / health certificate. This certificate gave some disclosure to those seeking to travel and stay in safe hotels. What extra was done in reality, no one knows for sure. How these obligations were pursued and prosecuted is another issue. So hotels in the fault lines should and must get certified that they are built according to the earthquake regulations and are continuously checked and approved by independent organisations. There should be destructive penalties for any play around and or grey areas. Governments and tourism ministries should check their country for any fault line activity. According to this, it should be as of yesterday to place together an overwhelming conditioned certificate and start applying this as soon as possible. Hotels, restaurants, and facilities lying along a fault line should be certified and use this as a marketing tool if necessary. What’s the meaning of room space and luxury? How many spa areas a property has unless it’s a proven strong structure? Live matters and every chain in this reaction should do what they are expected to do.
Zekeriya Şen
International Travel Consultant, Journalist and Writer
