Greece gives away 25,000 free holidays – with the majority going to Brits – for tourists affected by wildfires last year

Greece is providing as much as 25,000 folks ‘free’ holidays in what’s considered a world-first scheme that may see the federal government compensate vacationers pressured to flee the island of Rhodes amid brutal wildfires final 12 months. 

Officers say that anybody who was evacuated from a lodge in Rhodes and had their vacation lower quick is eligible to assert vouchers of as much as 500 euros that may cowl the price of a week-long keep. 

Prospects whose claims are accredited can get pleasure from one other vacation in Greece at any time between now and Could 31, or from October 1 to November 15.

Some 5,000 holidaymakers have already signed up, officers declare, with many extra anticipated to take up the provide. 

The scheme, named ‘Rodos Week’, was concocted by Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis together with the nation’s tourism ministry and hoteliers on Rhodes.

It was introduced to British vacationers on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to drive consciousness, given that almost all of holidaymakers evacuated from Rhodes final 12 months had been Brits. 

The journey and tourism sector is a big a part of Greece’s economic system, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the nation’s GDP in 2022 – only one 12 months faraway from coronavirus lockdowns. 

Virtually 4.5 million Britons visited Greece that 12 months, in accordance with official figures, with some 10,000 Brits among the many 25,000 vacationers evacuated from Rhodes amid July’s wildfires. 

Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire on the island of Rhodes final night time as hundreds of Britons flee and head house

The four-star Princess Solar lodge is seen final July following harmful wildfires in Greece

Greece battled over 600 fires in July amid temperatures as excessive as 46 levels Celsius

‘The scheme is up and operating because the prime minister promised,’ the Greek tourism ministry’s basic secretary, Myron Flouris, instructed the Guardian. 

‘It has been a really sophisticated course of not least, I believe, as a result of we are the first nation on the planet to do that.’ 

Vacationers who imagine they’re eligible to assert a voucher should liaise instantly with the Greek authorities through a portal on the Rodos Week web site. 

Prospects who weren’t added to the registry of beneficiaries by their lodges or tour operators can nonetheless register for the scheme instantly, supplied they can provide proof of their keep and different crucial data requested on the web site. 

There are limits to the scheme, nevertheless, with tourism operators stating the vouchers can solely be claimed by company evacuated from recognised lodges.

Those that stayed in non-public lodging or unbiased B&Bs rented out through platforms corresponding to Airbnb aren’t eligible to assert free digs, and prospects will nonetheless be required to pay for flights. 

‘Anybody who was staying in areas that had been affected by the fires is eligible… it’ll apply solely to lodges, not Airbnb-style non-public lodging,’ hotelier union chief Yannis Papavasiliou stated. 

In the meantime, it seems that solely adults are capable of declare their free lodging, with no provisions made for kids who accompanied them. 

‘Beneficiaries could be all grownup people, no matter nationality, who had been staying in lodges evacuated in the course of the wildfires on the island of Rhodes in July 2023,’ an official assertion on the Rodos Now web site learn.

Nonetheless, lodge chiefs count on the uptake to extend in direction of the autumn as Brits look to get pleasure from sunny getaways later this 12 months. 

‘The response has been excellent and we’re instructed shall be even stronger come the autumn,’ Papavasiliou stated.

The dimensions of the injury from wildfires in Kiotari, Rhodes, Greece 

Solar loungers and a bar on the pool of a lodge destroyed by hearth within the southeast of the resort island of Rhodes 

1000’s of holidaymakers had been evacuated from lodges final July and bundled into repatriation flights

Flames burn a hill on the Aegean Sea island of Rhodes

As much as 10,000 Britons had been evacuated from Rhodes

Final 12 months, a number of British holidaymakers complained that their tour operators carried out flights to Rhodes even because the wildfires blazed uncontrolled.

Many shoppers stated they weren’t knowledgeable by their journey companies or flight suppliers of the dimensions of the wildfires, with some travellers being escorted on to evacuation centres as they disembarked their flights. 

Helen Tonks, a mother-of-six from Cheshire, stated she was flown right into a ‘residing nightmare’ by tour operator Tui on Saturday, July 21 final 12 months – the weekend the wildfires had been their most ferocious. 

She instructed MailOnline: ‘We landed and had been instructed, “Sorry, you’ll be able to’t go to your lodge – it is burned down”. 

‘We had no concept the fires had been this unhealthy or as near the lodges as they had been. 

‘Tui stated nothing, not even when our flight was delayed. Even the captain’s chat on the airplane was upbeat. We’d by no means have gone if we had recognized’. 

Photos taken in Rhodes in July confirmed how hundreds of vacationers had been pressured to desert their belongings and sleep on seashores, airport concourses and makeshift evacuation centres corresponding to public sports activities halls. 

Greece battled some 600 fires in July amid horrendously dry circumstances and temperatures in extra of 40 levels C due to the ‘Cerberus’ heatwave that descended on a lot of southern Europe.