The tourist season on the island of Rhodes has started with the best prospects and according to all estimates it will develop particularly dynamically in the coming months with a corresponding stimulation of the local economy.

“We expect particularly positive results from almost all tourist markets and we take it for granted that tourist arrivals this year will be increased,” the president of the Union of Tourist Offices of the Dodecanese, Christos Michalakis, points out in his statements to APE-MPE.

Already over the weekend, there has been a sharp increase in charter flights and traffic is set to skyrocket as mass tourist arrivals were scheduled to begin at this time and would essentially be the start of the tourist season attributed mainly to the Catholic Easter.

But tourist traffic will rise even more, says Mr. Michalakis, since from April 1 to 7 the number of charter flights almost doubles. According to the data, 122 charter flights from various countries are expected to land in Rhodes during that time, increasing the tourist traffic even more, while by the 10th of the month, most of the hotels that have not yet opened are expected to open, in order to accommodate the tourists who are starting to arrive en masse on the island.

“According to so far, the season will be very good and will last at least until the middle of November,” the general director of the Tourism Promotion Organization of Rhodes, Dionysios Tsiligiris, emphasizes to APE-MPE.

There is an increase in bookings from almost all tourist markets, which is particularly important as Mr. Tsiligiris points out, while a significant number of Turkish tourists are going to visit the island of Rhodes and the other islands of the Dodecanese in the context of the recent seven-day visa agreement.

Increased traffic is expected from England, Holland, Scandinavia, Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, while a pleasant surprise is the Israeli market which is starting well but no one knows how it will develop further.

It is also noteworthy, as Mr. Tsiligiris points out, that from Germany there is a “numbness” in bookings due to the financial crisis, but there is optimism that things will develop well afterwards.

The problem that exists is that of the lack of staff that plagues most tourist businesses, says Mr. Tsiligiris, pointing out that every effort is being made to deal with it.

The president of the Hotel Association of Rhodes, Yiannis Papavasileiou, recently expressed his optimism with his statements, stressing that this year’s tourist season on our island will be positive and, in fact, according to his estimates, the traffic will record an increase of up to 5%, which means that we are going for a new record breaking every previous performance.