Impressive are the figures for the tourist traffic in Rhodes and the other islands of the Dodecanese, which is developing dynamically and will continue to do so in the coming months.

The data that has formed so far, shows that the season will be the best in the history of Rhodian tourismwhile accordingly traffic is also high on the other islands of the Dodecanese

It is indicative that the month with the greatest tourist traffic of all time was this year’s August, which exceeded all expectations in terms of arrivals at the island’s airport.

The official data announced by Fraport Greece showed that August saw the most tourists of all time come to Rhodes, regarding the monthly tourist traffic recorded for our island’s airport and in fact, compared to the same month last year, the percentage of the increase exceeded 20%.

In particular, last month, they arrived on charter flights to Rhodes 616,607 tourists, compared to 509,344 in August 2023, a year in which again tourist traffic had increased and was quite satisfactory.

This year, not only was a new record of tourist traffic recorded but according to the data, the rate of increase reached 21%, as we had 107,263 tourists more than last year. Thus, this year’s August emerges as the best month and 2024 as the best year.

Based on the data, the English were for one more year the best visitors to the island, as they were in first place, while the Germans took second place, followed by Poles, Italians and Israelis.

British arrivals in Rhodes on charter flights were 134,450, Germans 91,166 and Poles 44,580, with the top three continuing to hold steady.

In terms of passenger traffic through the airport, this amounted to 1,162,084 visitors on international flights compared to 987,710 in the same month last year (an increase of 17.7%), while through our airport, along with domestic flight passengers, 1,264 .300 vs. 1,081,909 last year in the same month (up 16.9%).

It is worth noting that, since the beginning of the year, 4,293,436 tourists were transported through “Diagoras” airport compared to 3,751,634 last year (an increase of 14.4%), while the total passenger traffic for the same period, approached 5 million people .

According to the data, in eight months 4,885,541 passengers were transported through the island’s airport against 4,306,555 last year, recording an increase of 13.4%.

The flights served at our island’s airport also skyrocketed, as they reached 7,133 (arrivals and departures) compared to 6,504 last year in the same month, marking an increase of 9.7%. Since the beginning of the year, the flights served at the island’s airport reached 26,963 (arrivals and departures) compared to 24,787 last year in August, with an increase of 8.8%.

In total, domestic and international flights totaled 8,079 last month, compared to 7,352 last year and the increase reached 9.9%, while since the beginning of the year, they totaled 32,731 compared to 30,117 last year in the same period, shaping the increase to 8.7%.

The excellent progress of this season was recently mentioned in his statements by the Deputy Mayor for Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Rhodes, Giorgos Toppos, who expressed his satisfaction by pointing out that from January until today, an increase in tourist traffic of the order of 17% was recorded

Marine tourism

In total, they have come to the island of Rhodes until today 261,646 passengers on cruise ships. The most impressive thing about the cruise line, however, according to Mr. Toppos, is that October will break all records for all previous months, with 59 scheduled cruise ship calls, more than any other month. In particular for yachting, there is an increase in boat arrivals of the order of 25%, which is huge in terms of alternative marine tourism.

He also mentioned that they are exploring new markets and have planned some actions for Asia, specifically for China, India, Bahrain and South Korea. In them they have a presence at exhibitions, where the destination was presented while they have scheduled the first groups from China and India to come from November 15.

As he noted, these are visitors who will come to our island in the winter season and thus, we can tentatively talk about extending the tourist season, but something that still requires a lot of work, as well as cooperation and synergies from all those involved in tourism agencies.

At the same time, they will further strengthen the “traditional” markets that are those of Europe, such as France, which this year did not meet expectations. They are also trying to approach the American market and have been in contact with the diaspora. They are planning some actions and synergies to attract more visitors from America, expatriate and non-American.

The numbers for visitors from Turkey are also impressive, since the tourist traffic from there, this year, shows an increase of 55% and so far, 80 thousand visitors have come.

Regarding alternative tourism, indicatively, they have taken some promotional actions to promote it, such as maritime, cultural, walking, gastronomic, conference and religious. For these forms of tourism, they have made some promotional videos that present the wealth of the island, so that it becomes more attractive to certain groups of visitors.

Regarding the repeaters, they have implemented a new program for their award, since it is the best advertisement for the island – in fact, so far they have made around a hundred bronze, silver, gold and diamond awards, depending on the number of visits, which is a challenge for our visitors.

Rhodes could not miss the celebration of world tourism day, for which they are planning a three-day event in collaboration with the region and the vice-region governor Christos Michalakis as well as the Federation of Cultural Associations.