It was once so popular that locals started to hope that the tourists would stay away. Then came the wildfires. Now free holidays are part of a bid to help Rhodes recover from the devastation that ripped through parts of the island in 2023.
Following last year’s devastating wildfires that ravaged large areas of Greece, tourists who had been forced to evacuate were offered one week of free holidays to Rhodes by the Greek government. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offered the trips for the spring or autumn of 2024. He said it was to “we make sure they come back to the island and enjoy its natural beauty.
” The tourist beauty spot descended into chaos as the fires spread. A massive 20,000 people, including thousands of tourists, were forced to flee the blazes last year in what officials said at the time was the largest evacuation the country had ever seen. A large percentage of Greece’s GDP comes from the tourism sector with the island of Rhodes accounting for a large part of that - around 2.
6 million visitors going there last year alone. The country is experiencing a widening gap between regions with high levels of tourism and those without - but debates about whether tourism can sometimes become overwhelming make it a complex topic. Data on turnover in accommodation and catering from the The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) shows that a fifth of turnover, 18.
3 percent, is generated in the Southern Aegean region, with Rhodes alone accounting for 6.5 perce.