The situation with the reservations for the island of Rhodes is improving on a daily basis, while the picture with the arrivals already shows trends of improvement.
This was stressed yesterday, in statements to reporters the Deputy Mayor of Tourism Development Mr. Kostas Taraslias and referred to the course of cruise, with about 300 scheduled approaches for this season in the port of Rhodes to create a climate of optimism since they will gradually escape from the visit ‘bubble – bubble’.
“Last week, 370 international flights took place at Rhodes Airport, bringing some 31,000 visitors to the island. As you can understand, with so many flights we would all like there to be more passengers. However, this is a result of the fact that the policies of the countries and the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic do not allow us to have the same high influx of tourists. Therefore, it is of great importance for all of us to make as much effort as possible to reduce the cases in our region – based on the individual responsibility of each of us with vaccinations – not only for our personal protection but also to support our local economy,” Taraslias said.
Especially on the latest news about the tourist traffic, the deputy mayor expressed his satisfaction, saying the following:
“We are particularly happy as the signals we are receiving are that flights are on the rise. In addition, Great Britain is expected to allow British tourists who are vaccinated not to have to be quarantined for ten days when they return from their holidays. This is very important for the opening of the British market from now on, which will determine the course of the tourist season on our island.”
He also said that the Tourism Directorate of the Municipality of Rhodes continues the campaign of communication of the tourist product while cooperation with the South Aegean Region in the tourism sector is already underway.
Already, together with tourism representatives from Israel, short films were shot in various places in the Medieval City for their own agencies and interviews were given to Slovakian TV channels. A TV show was filmed for the Greek-speaking TV in London and visits of various Bloggers to the island (from the USA etc.) are continuing.
“In the Tourism Directorate we continue a great effort to enhance these missions with Bloggers by providing them with the necessary services to tour our island and get the best impressions,” he said.
Interestingly, next Thursday, June 24, 2021, a brand new, large cruise ship of the Celebrity Apex company is expected in the port of Rhodes. The itinerary starts from Piraeus, “catches” Santorini airport, Mykonos, Rhodes and is bound for Cyprus. We are very satisfied with the demand that Rhodes has this year and here I want to note that, despite the restriction measures due to the pandemic, the cruise ship arrivals this year will be more than even in 2019! Therefore, we are optimistic,” Taraslias said.
Asked about the markets, he pointed out that apart from the UK market from which everyone has expectations, there is strong interest from other markets with a peak in the last week where ‘individual booking’ (not bookings through tour operators) has increased to…. 2019 levels!
“This shows that those who are expressing interest in an individual way and not through tour operators are giving us very high hopes. Already the bookings and occupancy rates are of such a nature – which fills us with optimism! If this continues, the hotels will be able to have better occupancies and of course, the market, the catering and the local economy will move. I hope it will continue…”, concluded Taraslia.