Rhodes Recovers After Fires, Welcomes Rise in Charter Flights

Tourist flows to Rhodes after the devastating fires in July are picking up pace with the island welcoming 1,130 charter flights in the first two weeks of October.

Tourism professionals are seeing an extension of the season and expecting October to be strong in terms of arrivals mainly from the UK and Germany.

According to the latest data, Rhodes airport handled 1,130 flights and 170,000 arrivals in the first two weeks of this month. Fraport Greece data found that in the March-September period, 2.3 million people visited Rhodes, up by 2.28 percent over the same period a year ago.

Based on seven-month data which exceeded last year’s traffic as well as airline seats booked into November, island stakeholders expect traffic to reach some 2.5 million arrivals in 2023.

In relevant news, earlier this week, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni told the press that the “Rhodes Pass” will be activated in the coming period. The Rhodes Pass is aimed at boosting tourism to the island as well as compensating tourists who were forced to evacuate during the July fires.

The pass, similar in scope to the Evia Pass, covers the cost of one week of free accommodation on Rhodes, in the spring or fall of 2024, as announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“This is a gesture of hospitality and kindness,” said Kefalogianni, adding that similar subsidized passes would be created for fire-hit Evros (aka the Evros Pass) and for flood-hit Thessaly (Thessaly Pass).

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni.

Kefalogianni also said that the tourism and education ministries were examining the possibility of organizing school trips to the region of Evros that would also include reforestation activities at Dadia Forest. It is reminded that most of the Dadia Forest was destroyed after uncontrolled fires burned for over 16 days taking a terrible toll on the National Park’s ecosystem.