Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday that the wildfires had affected 15 percent of the tourist island of Rhodes and that the situation was now “back to normal” but that authorities “understand that it caused some inconvenience to visitors.”
– For anyone whose holiday was interrupted by the wildfires, the Greek government in cooperation with local authorities will offer a week’s free holiday in Rhodes next spring or autumn, so we will ensure they come back to Rhodes to enjoy its natural beauty, Mitsotakis told Britain’s ITV.
The reason is stated to be tourism in the country, which is the main source of income for Greece’s economy. How the trips will be organized has not yet been communicated.
Apollo, which is one of the tour operators that was forced to cancel flights to Rhodes, has currently not received any more information from the Greek authorities about how the free trips are to be administered, says Apollo’s press officer, Martina Krantz to TV4 Nyheterna.
– As far as I know, it’s nothing we’ve been involved in before, but we’re investigating this more closely right now, says Martina Krantz.
The forest fires that started on July 18 in central Rhodes spread to the eastern and southern coasts, an area with many seaside resorts. Over 20,000 tourists and locals were forced to flee their hotels and homes due to the fires. Around 300 of the tourists had traveled there with tour operators from Sweden. Apollo, Ving and Tui canceled their trips to the affected areas.