Until now, Turkish visitors had to present their documents at the Greek consulate in Izmir and wait for approval from the authorities. From now on, they will be able to obtain this visa in Greece. According to local authorities, thousands of people are already interested.
Travelers from Turkey will be able to visit around ten Greek islands with an accelerated temporary visa, announced Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after his historic meeting last December with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The seven-day visa that will be granted on site will be valid for ten islands: Kalymnos, Limnos, Leros, Kos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Symi and Kastelorizo with an accelerated visa. These are islands very close to the Turkish coast that have attracted visitors to Turkey for years despite the “difficult” diplomatic relations between Athens and Ankara.
The mayor of the island of Symi Lefteris Papakalodoukas welcomes this progress.
”We cooperate very well with the Turks in the fields of tourism and culture. Symi receives a lot of people from Türkiye, especially yachts. Around 1,400 boats used Symi as a point of entry into the island’s customs. This is an even larger figure for a much larger island like Rhodes. So, as you can understand, this visa is going to make things much easier for Turkish visitors who want to visit our islands.”
. Until now, Turkish visitors had to present their documents to the Greek consulate in Izmir and wait for approval. From now on, they will be able to obtain this visa in Greece. According to local authorities, thousands of people are already interested.
The island of Rhodes wants this visa to be implemented as quickly as possible in order to be able to welcome more Turkish tourists this summer.
Iannis Papavasileiou is the president of the Rhodes Hoteliers Association.
”Visitors from Türkiye will increase. They will be able to stay in our hotels for a few days, which will allow the hotels to make a profit, and the same goes for the local market. I think this is very positive and will fill a big void created by the absence of Israeli tourists. We had a lot of tourists coming from there and I think they could be replaced by this new market.”
In 2023, More than 30 million people visited Greece. Tourism represents 18% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The tourism sector employs more than 900,000 people.
