Over 72,000 Turkish tourists travelled to and from Rhodes in the first four months of 2025, marking a significant surge in tourism in Greece.
The significant surge in tourism from Türkiye, in particular to Rhodes island, is due to the expansion of the Greek visa-on-arrival policy for Turkish nationals for 12 Aegean islands, Schengen.News reports.
The Hellenic Republic’s fast-track program permits short-term visits from one to seven days for Turkish visitors.
Turkish Tourists Flock to Rhodes
Local authorities said that a total of 60,000 of the 72,000 crossings between Marmaris and Rhodes were made via ferries.
According to a report from Türkiye Today, popular tourist attractions for visitors from Türkiye include the following:
- Old Town (Old City)
- Hippocrates Square
- Beautiful acropolis
- Butterfly Valley
- It is Harbor.
Visa-on-Arrival Valid Until 2026
Greece introduced the program for Turkish nationals on April 1, 2024, following an agreement reached between the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Consul General of Greece to Istanbul, Ambassador Konstantinos Koutras, previously told local media that the scheme is a facilitation program that requires approval from the European Commission and other member states.
So, for us, it was very important to have it approved, and we have applied again to reimplement it also this year because the results were almost 100 per cent positive.
After resulting in great success, the European Commission decided to extend the program until April 2026.
In addition, the program was expanded to include a total of 12 islands, respectively:
- Kalymnos
- Kastellorizo
- Kos
- Lesbos (Lesvos)
- Leros
- Limnos
- Rhodes
- Samos
- symimi
- Chios (Hios)
- Patmos
- Samothrace
The Consul General of Greece to Istanbul, Ambassador Konstantinos Koutras, revealed previously that over 110,000 Turkish nationals travelled to Greece in 2024through the visa-on-arrival program.
Ambassador Koutras described the scheme as very successful, stressing that in 2024, over 1.3 million Turkish nationals visited Greece and over 600,000 Greeks travelled to Türkiye.
The statistics from the General Police Directorate of the North Aegean showed that in only three islands of the Northeast Aegean, there were an additional 54,373 visas issued by the end of August 2024.
The scheme brought a significant contribution to the Greek economy, however, some local reports said that “We made Greece rich” or “We have benefited Greece, one of our competitors in tourism, by ten per cent,” referring to the increasing number of Turkish tourists to Greece.