«Until November 15, there will be tourists in the hotels of Rhodes and even in some of them the occupancy rates will be particularly high,» says the Councillor for Tourism of Rhodes, Thanasis Vyrinis, who expresses his satisfaction with the development of the tourist season, which has broken every record, even that of the 2019 season, which until recently was the best season of Rhodian tourism.
Already the local authorities and agents have focused their interest in being able to attract tourists in the winter season, mainly retirees from Northern European countries and in this direction the first meetings have been held, while there is an open line with the Ministry of Tourism.
«We are particularly satisfied with this year's tourist season which is progressing impressively» says Mr. Vyrinis who coordinates the efforts of the municipality of Rhodes to achieve better results. As Mr. Vyrinis stresses, these days the tourist arrivals on the island of Rhodes have exceeded a total of 1,800,000 people. The goal is by the end of the year the number of tourists to reach 2,300,000 people, which is now considered feasible, since the coming months will be particularly dynamic in terms of arrivals.
It is even expected according to the estimates of Mr. Vyrini, but also players in the tourism market that the next period of time the tourist traffic will have better qualitative characteristics, since they have planned holidays older tourists with greater purchasing power.
The first meetings have already been held in Rhodes for the winter accommodation programme for pensioners and it is expected that there will be tangible results in the coming weeks.
According to what has become known about 20 hotels with around 5,000 beds will stay open in Rhodes during the winter and will be available to accommodate European retirees who will want to leave their homeland to winter in Greece.
These are hotels-members of the Rhodes Hoteliers Association, the majority of which operate every winter on the island, and which responded to the request of the Ministry of Tourism, which is considering the possibility of creating a hospitality program for European retirees in Greek destinations.
Among them is Rhodes, which has the capacity to accommodate a number of elderly people who will decide to spend their winter, or at least part of it, in Greece, due to the high energy costs in their home countries.
They are small and large hotels located in the city of Rhodes and in the area of Ixia.
At the same time, restaurants have stated that they will stay open in the winter, stressing that this year the Ministry of Tourism is trying to organize a hospitality program for European pensioners in Greece, for the months of November and December, due to the energy crisis in Europe that will particularly affect the elderly.
Already, according to what has been reported, some restaurants on the island have expressed interest in participating and keeping their shops open during these two months. A first list has already been given to the Dodecanese Chamber of Commerce, so that it can be forwarded where requested.
Indeed, the president of the Dodecanese Chamber Ioannis Pappou in statements to local media confirmed the actions taken at this level saying that serious efforts are being made to have a very specific category of visitors even in the winter months, and that there is for this continuous communication with the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias.
«In cooperation with other collective bodies we are discussing to give a complete picture of which professionals, i.e. restaurants and hotels, will be open during the winter months, to give the right information to foreign markets in order to bring this category of visitors in the next season.
It is something that is happening for the first time in Greece in such an organized way. We have tried it before, but this time it will not only be for Rhodes. It is being done in a coordinated way for the whole country,» he said.
