Istanbul

To: The Istanbul Tourist Office
From: Claudia Forte Díaz
Date: 24.01.2010
Subject: Tourists' opinions of Istanbul

Istanbul is a big city in the northwest of Turkey, it is divided by the Bosphorous a huge strait which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. The aim of this report is to highlight the problems and advantages of Istanbul.

There are several things people like about Istanbul:

• The people. Most surveys say that all the people in Istanbul are extremely hospitable, and kind, that they make tourists feel like at home. The atmosphere is very lively.
• The monuments. There are lots of massive monuments and mosques which are all unique, such as the Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace or the Blue Mosque. In addition they have also liked the Grand Bazaar or the Bosphorous Strait itself, the cruises around the river have become very popular lately.
• The food. There is a great variety of food, with lots species, different meat, etc. in addition it is very cheap.

On the other hand, there are some complaints too:

• Means of transport. Although public transport is very good and modern they are very careless with safety, for example people could get in a taxi even if there were more people than the number of seats in the taxi! Traffic is also a problem, because of all the traffic jams and because of the narrow roads and the drivers don't stop at the traffic lights or in the zebra crossings.
• Cleanliness. Specially in the Grand Bazaar, because of all the food stalls, it is very difficult to keep it clean or some mosques in which people have to take their shoes off, something most of the tourists aren't used to; in some of them there are some kind of plastic bags for feet but there are a lot of mosques in which there aren't yet.
• The call to the prayer. Some tourists think is a part of the city's charm, but others have a lot of complains about the night calls, some of them are too late, and some are too early. A lot of tourists asked if the hotel windows could be changed to soundproof ones.

To sum up, on the one hand tourists love the people and the enviroment, but on the other hand safety in the streets and cleanliness could be some serious problems.