Rhodes: Forest fires do not deter tourists
It was a matter of survival: Within hours, a good 20,000 tourists had to flee to safety from huge forest and bush fires in the south-east of the Greek vacation island of Rhodes in July.
"If it had been night, we would have died," said one German holidaymaker at the time. Fire-fighting helicopters roared over hotel pools to pick up water, locals collected people in pick-ups and buses and got them out of danger through thick clouds of smoke, gale-force winds and the acrid smell of burning. But despite the "vacation hell", as some media headlines put it, the number of visitors to the Aegean island remained unbroken.
This weekend marks the official end of the tourist season on Rhodes, and despite the fires, the results are extremely positive. At the beginning of November, up to 11,000 holidaymakers were still arriving at the island's airport every day. "It looks like we will do even better this year than last year," says Manolis Markopoulos, head of the Rhodes Hotel Association. In 2022, around 2.5 million visitors traveled to the sunny island, which is said to have once belonged to the Greek sun god Helios and can boast around 280 days of sunshine and more than 3,000 hours of sunshine a year.
Visitors even after the fires
Looking back, it seems as if the island suffered more from the reports about the fires than from the fire itself: "It only burned in the south-east of Rhodes, not even five percent of the island's surface area was affected," Markopoulos clarifies and criticizes: "The picture that was painted internationally was terrible - as if the whole island was on fire." Of around 100 hotels that had to be evacuated due to the fires, only three remained closed afterwards due to major damage - the rest were able to reopen.
Across the island, many holidaymakers continued to enjoy their vacations undisturbed despite the fires, and new tourists were not deterred either. "When the first customers arrived after the fires, many asked: Where is the fire here, where did it burn?" recalls Markopoulos. With one caveat: "Everything around the affected coastal towns of Gennadi and Kiotari is indeed charred black - and that won't change until the coming season."
The Rhodians are proud to have managed the evacuations so well - there were not even any injuries, says Markopoulos. According to the government, it was the largest evacuation operation ever seen in Greece. Many tourists were also full of praise for the islanders, some of whom accommodated the people in their own homes. They thanked them by coming back.
Many bookings for 2024
This is also due to the fact that tour operators continue to focus on Rhodes. According to the hotel association, bookings for 2024 are already up to 40 percent higher than this year. Tour operator TUI has even increased flights to Rhodes from Central and Northern Europe.
TUI spokesperson Aage Dünhaupt says that vacationers from Germany will also be able to travel to the island again in 2024. Alongside Crete, Rhodes is the most popular vacation destination in Greece and therefore one of the most important in terms of volume. The TUI Care Foundation, a corporate foundation, is now planning a reforestation project on the island. Native, fire-tolerant trees are to be planted for the "TUI Forest".
For its part, the Greek government has promised support for the tourists affected by the fires in July: according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, those who had to cancel their vacation as a result will be allowed to stay on the island for a week free of charge in spring or autumn 2024, i.e. in the low season. According to the Ministry of Tourism, tour operators have recently received proposals on how to implement this campaign.
Concerns about extreme weather and natural disasters
The fires on Rhodes have not deterred tourism, but the sector, which is so economically important for Greece, is still concerned about the increasing number of extreme weather conditions and natural disasters.
Rhodes was not an isolated case: in August, there were fires near Athens, on the Peloponnese peninsula and around the north-eastern Greek port city of Alexandroupolis. There were also huge fires in the nearby Dadia National Park. At the beginning of September, the central Greek port city of Volos was flooded by severe storms. Each time, several people lost their lives, including a couple from Austria whose vacation home was swept away by the floods during the floods in September.
The government blames climate change for these extremes. Years ago, the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Citizen Protection established a system of warning text messages and rapid evacuations in the event of fires and floods, which is also displayed on the smartphones of foreign guests - and has probably spoiled many a vacation this year. But that hasn't stopped Greece fans: around 30 million people travel to Hellas every year.
- Despite the ongoing concern about climate change and its impacts, such as extreme weather and natural disasters like fires, tourism on Rhodes remains resilient.
- The tourist season on Rhodes concluded with positive results, despite the forest fires that occurred earlier in the year, with 11,000 holidaymakers still arriving daily at the end of November.
- The Rhodes Hotel Association's head, Manolis Markopoulos, highlighted that the fires primarily affected the south-east of the island, with only 3 hotels suffering major damage, and the majority of holidaymakers continuing their vacations undisturbed.
- In response to the fires, tour operators like TUI have shown renewed interest in Rhodes, with increased flights to the island for 2024 and plans for reforestation projects through their corporate foundation.
Source: www.dpa.com
