More than 27,000 Turkish citizens who chose to celebrate their great religious holiday, “Kurban Bayram” in Greece, provided a “breather” to the local economies of the large islands of the northern Aegean.

According to the data of the Greek Police, large numbers of visitors, Turks or Turks with European passports, arrived at the entrance gates of the ports of Mytilini, Chios and Samos from the opposite coasts of Asia Minor with the ships of the line that were constantly coming and going. .immigrants in European countries who are on holiday in Turkey and use their European identity card so that they do not need to issue an entry visa – visa).

Specifically, between Friday, June 23 and Monday, July 3:

In the port of Mytilini from Aivali more than 10,000 visitors.

In the port of Chios from Cesme more than 10,500 visitors.

And finally, at the entry ports of Samos, Vathy and Karlovasi, from Kusadasi, more than 7,000 visitors.

In all the islands and given the tourist traffic already, with charter flights from European countries, but also Greek visitors, it was impossible to find an empty bed of any kind or a rental car. The movement in the market was also important. On Saturday 1 July, the last working day for the festive period when Turkish visitors were in the islands, the shopping streets were full of Turks who had obviously done a lot of shopping.

It should be noted that the holiday of Kurban Bayram was extended in time after, by the decision of the Erdogan Government, an additional two days of holiday were given, resulting in the whole of Turkey being on a 10-day mini-holiday, including weekends.

Speaking to APE BEE, Costas Moudros, a member of the local tourism body, characterizes the holidays of the Turks in Chios as a “significant economic breather for the people of Chios”. The visitors to Chios, mainly from the opposite Smyrna, were of high income and, as it was said, “they spent money on shopping, food and drink. Especially the latter, due to high taxation in Turkey, is much cheaper in Greece.”

“The messages were and remain very optimistic,” says the president of Lesvos tourist agents, Panagiotis Chatzikyriakos. As he says, although Bayrami is over, arrivals from the opposite coasts are expected to continue unabated with visitors from Istanbul, Izmir and other inland cities of Turkey.

“On an average in the last week about 900 to 1,000 people came a day. We estimate that the arrivals of the Turks were of the order of 1,000 people per day,” says Mr. Chatzikyriakos to APE – MPE.

And all this given the obligation of the Turks to issue an accurate visa that is also issued with a time-consuming process. As all the executives of the islands’ market argue “it is clear the necessity to approve the pilot program for the fast-track issuance of 15-day short-stay visas for Turkish visitors this year.” As they say “this is a program of vital importance for the tourism enhancement of the Aegean islands”.

Let us finally mention that with the data of the period but due to the policy followed in matters of accommodation prices, the islands of the northern Aegean are considered an economic destination compared to other areas where prices have skyrocketed. “In Lesvos, one can have a holiday spending much less money on food and accommodation since the prices of most items are kept at good levels despite the big increases” he tells APE – BE