British holidaymakers disgusted by hotel’s ‘terror’ poolside prank
Jet2Holidays has apologised to some of its customers after staff at a hotel in Turkey dressed as ISIS-style gunmen and staged a poolside prank.
Wearing Middle Eastern clothing and carrying fake guns, the staff ran around the pool at the five-star Grand Yazici Mares hotel in Icmeler as part of a ‘Hollywood-themed’ show.
The hotel was busy was British customers from a number of UK tour operators, including Jet2Holidays, Thomson and Thomas Cook.
Coming just weeks after 38 people were killed in a shooting at two Tunisian hotels, some British holidaymakers say they were panicked into thinking it was a genuine terrorist attack.
Others said the ‘show’ was in bad taste and was disrespectful to the victims of the Tunisia attack, 30 of whom were British.
Hotel guests said they jumped from their sunbeds as one man approached carrying a plastic bottle with the word ‘fuel’ written on it and pretended to set light to it.
After complaining to the hotel manager, they were told it was just a joke and to speak to their holiday rep.
One family, who had booked their holiday through Jet2Holidays, spoke to The Sun newspaper and shared their experience on review websites.
When approached by the newspaper, Jet2holidays issued this statement: "We are sorry to hear about the distress experienced by the Sutton family and on hearing this we immediately spoke to the hotel management.
"They have assured us it was never their intention to cause any offense or upset with their entertainment programme. This was a Hollywood themed poolside show, which included the characters Rambo and Superman, and it is always well received by the hotel’s residents.
"The hotel management now understands that some of the costumes may have caused offense and they will no longer use these in their shows."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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