Turkish holidaymakers flock to Greek islands during Eid

ISTANBUL

Some 20,000 Turks traveled to five Greek islands in the Aegean Sea during the nine-day-long Eid al-Fitr break after Greece launched the visa-on-arrival scheme for Turkish holidaymakers.

The number of Turkish tourists visiting those Greek islands increased by 20 percent compared to the same period of last year.

In the first 10 days of April, 3,800 Turkish travelers visited the Greek island of Lesbos, up from only 390 a year ago, while the number of Turks visiting Chios rose from 2,716 to 4,993.

Nearly 6,000 Turkish holidaymakers traveled to Rhodes during the Eid, up from 2,320 a year earlier. Samos and Kos welcomed 2,851 and 3,300 Turkish tourists, respectively.

In early April last year, some 5,969 Turks visited those five Greek islands.

Turkish tourists’ interest in Greek islands is likely to continue during the summer season as well as during the upcoming holidays on April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day and Eid al-Adha, said Engin Ceylan from the Association of the Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB).

Going on a holiday in Türkiye is more costly due to inflation while vacationing on Greek islands has become more affordable for Turkish people, according to Ceylan.

Turkish visitors spend twice as much as tourists arriving on the island with charter flights, said Kostas Moutzouris, the Greek governor for the North Aegean region.

High occupancy rates at hotels

Meanwhile, hotels in popular resorts on the Aegean coasts and the southern province of Antalya enjoyed strong demand from holidaymakers during the Eid break, with many of them seeing the occupancy rate hit 100 percent.

Not only domestic but also foreign tourists from European countries flocked to the major resorts due to the Easter holiday.

During the Eid holiday some 2 million people traveled to the Aegean and Mediterranean resorts, said Hamit Kuk from the Association of the Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB).

More than 20 million people traveled across the country during Eid, which was above expectations, he added.

Travelers spent around 150 billion Turkish Liras, according to Kuk.

Between April 9-13, 182,827 people arrived at Antalya Airport, including 135,745 international travelers.

“The occupation rate at the hotels in the Mediterranean region hit 100 percent. It was the same with accommodation facilities in the Aegean region,” Kuk said.

There was also a strong demand for cultural tourism tours in Cappadocia as well as destinations in the Black Sea region and the southeastern provinces, according to Kuk.

Kuk voiced optimism that 2024 will be much better than last year for the tourism industry and targets could be easily met.

“Early bookings since November signal that. Some 56 million people visited Türkiye last year. In 2024, this figure will be around 60 million.”