Greece Counting on Fast-track Visa to Attract More Tourists from Turkey

Symi Island, Greece. Photo © Greek Travel Pages (GTP)

North Aegean Region authorities are expecting that a newly announced fast-track visa program for Turkish nationals will increase tourist flows to the islands.

Prime Minster Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the reinstatement of the visa program after a historic meeting last week with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Participating in this year’s TTI Tourism Trade International Fair and Congress in Izmir, Turkey, North Aegean Regional Governor Konstantinos Moutzouris welcomed the news saying the decision would give “value” and impetus to the islands.

North Aegean Deputy Regional Governor Nikolaos Nyktas at the TTI Tourism Trade International Fair and Congress in Izmir, Turkey.

Also attending the event was Deputy Regional Governor Nikolaos Nyktas who confirmed that the visa announcement had already increased interest in the North Aegean islands.

The seven-day visa will be issued on the spot (customs office) by Greek authorities and will be valid for a period of 12 months. Turkish citizens will be able to visit the Greek islands of Kalymnos, Limnos, Leros, Kos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Symi, and Kastelorizo all year round.

It should be noted that the visa does not allow traveler access to other Schengen zone countries.

Tourism professionals on the North Aegean islands, which bore the brunt of the refugee crisis, are hopeful that the visa will increase tourist flows and revive activity all year round.

North Aegean Regional Governor Konstantinos Moutzouris (left) during a recent meeting with Greek Minister of Immigration and Asylum Dimitris Kairidis.

Moutzouris told Greek news site Capital.gr that Turkish travelers spend three times more than tourists visiting the islands on charter flights and that the visa will facilitate travel all year round, on weekends and holidays.

Indicatively, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, Turkey accounted for 1.9 percent of all arrivals to Greece in 2022 and 3.5 percent in pre-Covid 2019. In 2021, Turkish travelers accounted for 1.3 percent of all night stays and 0.8 percent of total tourism-related revenues.

According to an INSETE study, arrivals to Greece from Turkey dropped by 50.6 percent in 2022 to 541 thousand from 1.1 million in 2019, overnight stays declined by 43.6 percent to 2.3 million in 2022 from 4.1 million in 2019 and revenues fell by 30.7 percent in 2022 to 226 million euros from 326 million euros in 2019.

The study notes however that average spending per person increased by 40.2 percent to 417.9 euros in 2022 from 298.1 euros in 2019; average spending per night stay was up by 22.8 percent to 98.5 euros in 2022 from 80.2 euros in 2019; and average length of stay was up by 14.1 percent in 2022 to 4.2 days from 3.7 days in 2019.

Last week, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni and her Turkish counterpart Mehmet Nuri Ersoy signed a joint declaration to further promote cooperation between the two countries in tourism.