Holidays to Greece 2024: Country offering 'free' holidays to tourists who fled 2023 Rhodes wildfires - how to obtain vouchers

Popular holiday destination Greece has launched "free" holidays for tourists who fled the Rhodes wildfires that took place last year. Up to 25,000 holidaymakers, mainly from Britain, are in line for vouchers to cover a week’s hotel stay, the country has confirmed.

The largest wildfire evacuation in Greek history was saw last year with 19,000 people forced to leave their towns and resorts. Satellite data from NASA showed that wildfires burned for several days and spread rapidly as winds picked up.

Conditions were exceptionally dry in the weeks preceding the fire with most of the island not seeing any rain in more than seven weeks. At the time Jet2 and Tui cancelled flights to the Greek island of Rhodes which was particularly badly hit by the wildfires.

The Greek tourism ministry’s general secretary, Myron Flouris, told the Guardian that the scheme to give UK tourists who fled Rhodes ‘free’ holidays is “up and running as the prime minister promised”, adding that “it's been a very complicated process not least, I think, because we’re the first country in the world to do this.”

People who stayed in hotels that were evacuated because of the July fires will be able to redeem e-vouchers worth up to €500 to cover the accommodation charges of a week-long stay. The initiative will be run in two phases: between now and 31 May and 1 October to 15 November.

Yannis Papavasiliou, who heads the island’s union of hoteliers, said: “Anyone who was staying in areas that were affected by the fires is eligible. The response has been very good and we are told will be even stronger come the autumn. 

“It will apply only to hotels, not Airbnb-style private accommodation. At the end of the day Greece is making good on its promise to recompense all those who lost their holidays because of climate change.”

The country’s centre-right government, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said: “All of the Mediterranean is a hotspot for climate change. That, statistically, means we will have more fires and probably more floods. It wasn’t easy … to evacuate 25,000 visitors but we did it safely and we are very proud of the fact that we managed to confront this crisis essentially without mourning [the loss] of human life.”

UK holidaymakers are expected to liaise directly with the Greek government to obtain their vouchers. TUI said its customers should individually contact the Greek government online, while Thomas Cook said the process was managed by the Greek tourist board, Rhodes authorities and participating hoteliers, rather than its team.