Ministry fines hotel for charging customer additional fee due to nationality – Turkish Minute

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has fined a hotel in Turkey’s popular holiday resort of Antalya for charging a Turkish customer an additional fee under the heading of “nationality surcharge,” Turkish media outlets reported, citing a minister.

According to Turkish media reports, the Turkish customer booked a reservation at Limak Lara Hotel through a foreign website after noticing that hotels in the country charge higher prices for Turks than foreigners for reservations. Upon arriving at the hotel and being identified as a Turkish citizen, the customer was charged an additional 120 euros (TL 4,178).

After hotel authorities faced backlash on social media over the weekend for labeling this additional fee as a “nationality surcharge” on the invoice, the Culture and Tourism Ministry conducted an inspection.

Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said in a statement on Tuesday that the ministry had imposed a fine of TL 54,694 ($1,689) on hotel management for unjustly…