Greece has launched a “free” holidays program “Rodos Week” for tourists who were forced to flee the island of Rhodes due to the wildfires in July 2023. The country fulfills its promises to tourists with vouchers up to 500 euros and for a week-long holiday in two available periods, that is in from April to May and from October to November.
Thousands of local and foreign holidaymakers, mainly from Britain, were forced to flee Rhodes as the wildfires raged for days and the government activated the whole firefighting mechanism only after the tourists posted pictures on social media.
Beginning of August, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the compensation for evacuated tourists.
It has required new legislation and navigation of copious red tape but nine months after wildfires devastated Rhodes, Greece has launched the first “free” holidays for thousands of tourists forced to flee the island, note British media on Friday.
In a decision tourism officials call a world first, up to 25,000 affected holidaymakers will, as of this week, be eligible for compensation, reported UK daily The Guardian.
“The scheme is up and running as the prime minister promised,” the Greek tourism ministry’s general secretary, Myron Flouris, told the Guardian. “It’s been a very complicated process not least, I think, because we’re the first country in the world to do this.”
Under the programme, people who stayed in hotels that were evacuated because of the July fires will be able to redeem e-vouchers worth up to €500 to cover the accommodation charges of a week-long stay. The initiative will be run in two phases: between now and 31 May and 1 October to 15 November.
Take-up has already been strong, tourism officials in Rhodes say, with more than 5,000 holidaymakers enrolling on the scheme’s register of beneficiaries.
He said compensation would reflect the amount clients originally paid to tour operators and would range from €300 to €500. “It will apply only to hotels, not Airbnb-style private accommodation. At the end of the day Greece is making good on its promise to recompense all those who lost their holidays because of climate change.”
The country’s centre-right government, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced the initiative on ITV’s Good Morning Britain within days of thousands of stranded holidaymakers being forced to cut short their trips as the wildfires raged.
Most of those put on repatriation flights were Britons.
Although many UK holidaymakers visit Rhodes with tour operators, including Jet2, TUI and Thomas Cook, they are expected to liaise directly with the Greek government to obtain their vouchers, the guardian pointed out.
Voucher available at the Rodos Week website.
PS if the program addresses foreigners, why it is called Rodos Week and not Rhodes Week is another one of the many Greek mysteries.
