Greece has launched "free" holidays for tourists who fled 2023 Rhodes wildfires. Up to 25,000 holidaymakers, mainly from Britain, in line for vouchers to cover a week’s hotel stay, the country has confirmed in a touching Cost of Living boost for Brits.
“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.”
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. “Anyone who was staying in areas that were affected by the fires is eligible,” said Yannis Papavasiliou, who heads the island’s union of hoteliers.
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“The response has been very good and we are told will be even stronger come the autumn.” He went on: “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, said: “All of the Mediterranean is a hotspot for climate change. That, statistically, means we will have more fires and probably more floods. It wasn’t easy … to evacuate 25,000 visitors but we did it safely and we are very proud of the fact that we managed to confront this crisis essentially without mourning [the loss] of human life.”"
One Brit holidaymaker said: “We thought at the time our daughter was dealing really well, but on reflection children are funny things, they’re like sponges and take in everything and it doesn’t come out till afterwards – she doesn’t want to return."
“We’d probably prefer to stay elsewhere on the island to move on from the whole experience,” she said, adding: “They want to encourage people back, which is nice. We’ll take up the offer, and we’ll spend money on the island.”
