Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has officially introduced a fast-track temporary visa for Turkish visitors to ten Greek Islands, as part of a strategy to fill the void left by the decrease in Israeli tourists.
The agreement is the product of the historic meeting last December between Mr Mitsotakis and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, where this idea was conceived.
The on-the-spot, seven-day visa will give access to the islands of Kalymnos, Limnos, Leros, Kos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Symi, and Kastellorizo.
These ten islands are all near the Turkish coast and have been historically quite popular with Turkish visitors even with the tense Greek-Turkish relations.
Lefteris Papakalodoukas, Mayor of Symi, spoke highly of this initiative and remarked on the strong ties in tourism and culture between Greece and Turkey.
He singled out Symi’s popularity among Turkish yachters as an example, with the island seeing significantly higher boat arrivals compared to others like Rhodes.
The move will simplify things greatly for Turkish visitors, who previously had faced a lengthy visa process via the Greek Consulate in Izmir, and it has seemingly already garnered lots of interest.
Giannis Papavasileiou, the President of the Hotel Owners Association, said that this should lead to an increase in the number of Turkish visitors, which would help compensate for the lack of Israeli tourists, and thus help benefit the local economy,
Locals are reportedly pushing for the implementation of this fast-track visa as soon as possible, hoping to welcome more Turkish visitors from this summer.
