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Holiday Village Turkey Complaint Cases Top 500 As Serious Sickness Confirmed
Published date:
14 Oct 2009
Three dozen guests contract salmonella as Holiday Village Turkey reels from illness outbreak for fifth consecutive year
Leading travel law experts have today urged a UK tour operator to ditch Holiday Village Turkey after it featured on the BBC’s flagship consumer programme Watchdog. Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have been instructed to investigate claims by more than 500 angry British guests over the latest holidays to be ruined at the site.
The outbreak is the fifth in five years at the Holiday Village Turkey bringing the total number of guests making legal claims since 2005 to more than 1100, including more than 135 confirmed cases of Salmonella food poisoning following stays there.
The latest outbreak includes 46 guests who have reported testing positive for salmonella poisoning after returning home from ruined holidays and a further three people who reported contracting campylobacter, while dozens more holidaymakers are still awaiting test results.
Seriously ill guests have been ferried to hospital right across the summer season, with cases ranging from May to the most recent reports as recent as the last week of September at the Turkish hotel - which changed its name from the Pegasus Palace after a catalogue of illness dating back to 2005.
Experts at leading law firm Irwin Mitchell have slammed the latest problems to hit the hotel in Sarigerme as ‘shameful’ and today urged First Choice - the only UK tour operator to send sunseekers to the four-star resort - to remove it from its roster of hotels for 2010.
But, despite a fifth year of large numbers of holidaymakers returning home with ongoing health problems, serious concerns about the quality and safety of the food served at the resort and in the face of questions from both Irwin Mitchell and Watchdog as to why the hotel hasn’t been closed, First Choice has refused to stop sending guests to the resort.
Clive Garner, Head of travel litigation at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Enough is enough. The Holiday Village Turkey’s record is utterly shameful and this cannot be allowed to go on any longer.
“Having considered with our experts the evidence currently available, we expect that many more of our clients will soon have a diagnosis made of Salmonella or other food poisoning. This is entirely consistent with the Salmonella outbreaks in the previous four years at this hotel.
“We have seen no evidence to support First Choice's suggestion of viral illness being the cause of the epidemic at the Holiday Village and we call upon them to finally accept that they are liable and to compensate our clients for the illnesses they contracted and work with us to agree fair compensation to all those effected as soon as possible.
“We now represent more than 550 people whose hard-earned holidays were ruined this year, and that makes more than 1,100 in total in the last five years. How many more innocent children, parents and couples have to fall seriously ill at this hotel before First Choice takes action?”
Garner added: “These are not minor complaints about the odd bad meal. We’re talking about repeated outbreaks of illnesses and about hundreds of children and adults who will be left with long-term illnesses and health problems due to repeated failures at this hotel for which the hotel's management and First Choice are both responsible.”
“Yet again, we see people falling ill right across the summer season at a hotel with an appalling track record of serious outbreaks of sickness. We said a year ago that fundamental changes in the hotel’s food hygiene standards and procedures needed to be made and that guests should not be sent there until the changes were made and it was safe to stay there. First Choice can’t say it hasn’t been warned and it has had more than enough time to sort this out.
“It’s time to either shut this hotel down and sort it out once and for all, or for First Choice to simply stop taking any more bookings.”
Illness At Holiday Village Turkey
Garner revealed the catalogue of woe at the Holiday Village Turkey now included:
- More than FORTY-FIVE reported cases of Salmonella poisoning so far this summer
- Three reported cases of Campylobacter, most commonly caused as a result of exposure to contaminated food or water, or by eating raw meat.
- More than 260 British guests at the hotel since 2005 who have suffered confirmed Salmonella or other similar food poisoning.
- Scores of men, women and children left with ongoing health problems.
- The first illnesses at the hotel in 2009 were reported in May this year, with the most recent case involving holidaymakers who stayed at the all-inclusive site as late as September 28.
As well as complaints about the food being served, substandard and unhygienic conditions at the hotel, including faeces in the swimming pools, many guests have complained about having to endure acute pain and discomfort over a prolonged period including sickness, diarrhoea and severe stomach cramps. Many of those affected received treatment at hospital in the resort, with whole families struck down with illness and one baby even having to be put on a drip.
Garner added: “So far this summer, we have been instructed by 550 guests of the Holiday Village Turkey, but from previous experience of claims arising at this hotel and many others we fear that this is just be the tip of the iceberg. More than 100 people rang us last week alone to report falling ill there and the season hasn’t ended yet.
“Tour operators have a duty of care to ensure that the hotels where they send their customers meet reasonable health and safety standards that are in place for a very good reason. If they cannot ensure holidaymakers’ safety, the answer is simple - stop sending them there.”
The ill-fated hotel changed its name from the Pegasus Palace after 140 people had previously taken legal action against First Choice, with Salmonella again confirmed among guests in outbreaks in each of 2005, 2006 and 2007.
If you or your family have suffered illness following a visit to Holiday Village Turkey please contact us about any possible compensation claim. Contact us now
More information:
View the original coverage of illness at holiday Village Turkey on the BBC's Watchdog
View Watchdog's follow up footage featuring a doctor's report
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