Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has officially introduced a fast-track temporary visa for Turkish visitors to ten Greek Islands, as part of a strategy to fill the void left by the decrease in Israeli tourists.
The agreement is the product of the historic meeting last December between Mr Mitsotakis and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, where this idea was conceived.
The on-the-spot, seven-day visa will give access to the islands of Kalymnos, Limnos, Leros, Kos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Symi, and Kastellorizo.
These ten islands are all near the Turkish coast and have been historically quite popular with Turkish visitors even with the tense Greek-Turkish relations.
Lefteris Papakalodoukas, Mayor of Symi, spoke highly of this initiative and remarked on the strong ties in tourism and culture between Greece and Turkey.
He singled out Symi’s popularity among Turkish yachters as an example, with the island seeing significantly higher boat arrivals compared to…
