Resort town mayors call for longer summer vacation

Mayors of three popular summer resort towns in southwestern Turkey have called on the government to further push the date for schools to reopen after the summer recess in a bid to boost tourism revenues. The mayors of Fethiye, Bodrum and Marmaris held a press conference in Marmaris yesterday and said an early end to summer vacation – scheduled for the second week of September – would hurt local tourism. They urged authorities to reschedule it to Sept. 28, the week after Qurban Bayramı, also known as Eid al-Adha, a four-day Muslim holiday.