Thousands of Tourists Fly to Five Greek Islands in July

Since Greece opened its borders on July 1 following the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown, the airports of Rhodes, Kos, Santorini, Mykonos and Karpathos have been recording the arrival of thousands of tourists, with officials expecting the trend to peak in the months of August and September.

Citing data of the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority and regional airport manager Fraport Greece, the Region of South Aegean said that during July 1-22, 147,169 foreign tourists arrived at five of its international airports (Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini, Karpathos) via 1,106 flights.

According to the data, during the weekend of July 18-19, the airports of Kos, Santorini, Mykonos and Karpathos welcomed a total of 97 flights which brought 12,856 foreign tourists. The airport of Rhodes during the same weekend received 11,333 arrivals via 78 direct flights.

It should be noted that the islands of Santorini and Mykonos attracted more than 3,000 foreign tourist arrivals in just 24 hours on Wednesday, July 22.

“The messages from the flow of tourists during the first three weeks (of July) create restrained optimism for the peak of the season, which this year is seen during the months of August and September,” the Region of the South Aegean said in an announcement.

Regarding the countries of origin of foreign tourists who arrived on Kos, Santorini and Mykonos during the July 1-15 period, 46.45 percent of the tourists on Kos were Germans and 24.6 percent of tourists on Santorini were Italians and 23.61 percent were French. Mykonos also welcomed Italian and French tourists (30.10 percent and 24.44 percent, respectively).

As for the nationalities of the tourists who chose the island of Rhodes for their holidays during July 1-15, the data showed that 36.70 percent of tourists were from Germany, 14.80 percent from Poland and 8.90 percent from the Czech Republic.