The team at TUI SENSATORI BARUT FETHIYE know that working with the local community is one of the most important aspects of being a responsible business, so they place a strong focus on operating in a way that helps to protect the lifestyle and culture of local people. This spans many areas of their business, from the work they do to protect Caretta caretta sea turtles who use local beaches as breeding grounds, through to training their staff about the importance of respecting and protecting human rights.  

The lack of tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic hit this region especially hard. The resort made a 27,000 Turkish Lira food donation and a 10,000 Turkish Lira financial support donation to support local families in need.  As part of their ongoing efforts to support the local economy, they provide information to guests via an in-house TV channel and a trip menu that highlights places to visit outside the resort.  This helps local businesses to reap the economic benefits of tourism.

The resort understands that the well-being of their own staff directly impacts the general well-being of the community.  For this reason they put measures in place to support staff that were facing difficulties because of the pandemic, such as quickly taking advantage of government support programmes so that the most employees possible could benefit from these, providing food aid to seasonal staff and setting up a financial support fund for employees facing extreme hardship, including healthcare support that extended to family members.

And their work doesn’t stop with people! The property found unique sustainable pencils that they have been selling to guests, donating the proceeds to the Fethiye Municipality Animal Shelter that supports stray cats and dogs in the area.