We are approaching the holiday season and begining to get a lot of mail in which we are asked for advice on the seaside in Turkey. We are a blog that mainly focuses Istanbul, but being experts and users of Turkish seaside resorts, we can certainly give good advice.

The tourism sector in Turkey is growing and it is certainly driven by stylish cities such as Bodrum and Antalya, but there are many other less known and even more beautiful places.

If you would like advice on Turkish seaside resorts, you can contact us via e-mail or leave a comment below, we leave you with a full article written by the Press Office of the Embassy of Turkey.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF BLUE FLAGS 2015: TURKEY GETS 2TH PLACE

Turkey with its 436 Blue Flag-certified beaches has ranked second among 47 countries, according to the 2015 list established by Copenhagen-based Foundation for Environmental Education, or FEE.

In the list, Spain holds the top spot with its 578 certified beaches. Turkey is followed by Greece (395), France (379) and Portugal (299).

Turkey had 383 beaches certified Blue Flag in 2014. The country joined the program in 1994 with only 12 Blue Flag beaches.

The beaches in the province of Antalya are, without doubt, the most awarded with Blue Flags. 174 to Muğla, 28 to Izmir, 20 to Aydin, 17 to Balikesir, 5 to Çanakkale, 1 to Mersin, and 1 to Tekirdağ and Düzce.

The Blue Flag is an international award, established in 1987. The Blue Flag is awarded every year in 41 countries. Initially, it was only given in Europe. Now, non-European countries (South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean) also receive the award with the support and participation of the two UN agencies: UNEP (United Nations Program for the Environment) and UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) with which the FEE has signed a Memorandum of global partnership.

Blue Flag is a voluntary eco-label awarded to over 3650 resorts seaside (beaches and marinas) that meet criteria relating to sustainable land management. The award of the Blue Flag for beaches and marinas is based on 32 specific criteria that cover four major areas: environmental education and information, water quality, environmental management, safety, and services. The main objective of this program is to encourage local management of coastal resorts to adopt environmentally sustainable policies.

Official website of international http://www.blueflag.org