2024-09-25 02:35:25
Several ferries with passengers leave for the Greek island of Chios every day from the port of Çeşme in Izmir.
Chios is one of the Greek islands in the northern Aegean Sea that Turkish tourists can visit with facilitated, express visas since April.
Visa relief for Turkish citizens to travel to the Greek Aegean islands was announced by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year. They are called “drop visa”, which means “gateway visa”, with no right of entry to another destination. Only seven Greek islands currently issue express visas, BTA clarifies.
Famous for the fragrant resin (sakaz, hence the Turkish name of the island), which the Greeks call mastiha, the island of Chios attracts many Turkish tourists, probably because of its proximity, as it lies 7 km from Izmir’s port of Cesme.
The mechanism for the express visas is jointly agreed with the authorities in both countries. The documents are submitted to a licensed company in Turkish territory one week before the trip, sent for control by the Greek authorities, and if approved, the visa is issued at the port of the relevant Greek island for which the documents were submitted. Check-in on the way out takes place at the Turkish port, and on the way back – at the Greek port. The visa is one-time and valid for up to seven days (6 nights), only for a certain island, told BTA Kuvanc Merich, a representative of the Association of Tour Operator Agencies of Turkey – TÜRSAB, in the city of Izmir.
According to him, the mechanism is facilitated from the point of view of the smaller number of documents (three or four documents, hotel reservation if the visitor will stay more than one day on the island, ferry ticket and insurance, as for the island of Chios it is not required) , which are easier to obtain than Schengen visas.
“During this season, the desire of Turkish citizens to travel or rest in the Greek islands of Chios, Lesvos, Kastelorizo, Samos, Rhodes, etc. reached a peak. Express visas are one of the main factors. It started in 2019, when the Greek government undertook facilitation for visas for travel to the Aegean islands for Turkish tourists who cannot get Schengen visas, because they are literally unavailable during the Covid epidemic, they started issuing express ones again visas, for now up to seven Greek islands,” said the Turkish representative.
“The other reason is the increase in the price of tourist vacations and services in our country. The citizen thinks: “It will be more profitable for me to rest on a Greek island than in Turkey, because it will be cheaper and I will be abroad,” he added. .
According to TÜRSAB data, there is also a large influx to the island of Samos (Sisam in Turkish), which can be reached by ferry from the popular Turkish resort of Kusadasi. From April to July, Samos was visited by over 100,000 Turkish tourists, three times more than in 2022.
And according to Greek police data published by BTA, a total of 372,495 tourists from Turkey have visited the islands in the northern Aegean Sea since April this year.
“I think that the expensive, fabulous prices for vacations in our resorts have “driven” people to the Greek islands. Express visas have turned out to be a good solution, both for tourists and for ferry companies. Maybe in the winter months the tourist flow will decrease, but in the holidays and holidays will probably last until the month of March next year,” said İbrahim Gölcük, director of one of the four ferry companies at Izmir’s Çeşme port.
In addition to passenger ships, ferries are also provided for those wishing to travel with their private cars.
“Once the ferry docks at the Greek port, passengers for express visas line up, which on some of the islands takes a long time to wait because they don’t have the necessary capacity. But in general, people are happy because they have the opportunity to visit new places , at favorable prices. The desire of Turkish tourists is to continue this system, because they both go abroad and it is cheaper for them than Turkey, “said a representative of a licensed Turkish agency for receiving documents for express visas.
Express visas to the Greek Aegean Islands for Turkish citizens to travel have boosted cooperation between responsible tourism representatives of the two neighboring countries.
“The Greek colleagues have assured us that the express visas will continue next year as well, because they want to attract tourists from the inner regions of Anatolia, to increase the capacity, and they are working very seriously in this direction. Our cooperation goes beyond local tourism. We are discussing going out together on common markets, we have projects to welcome tourists from Japan, the Far East, the USA, to provide opportunities for travel and rest in the wonderful Aegean region in which we live and which connects Turkey and Greece,” said the Turkish representative.
“A year ago a step was taken and this is where it has brought us. People who have never seen each other before, let alone talked, are making friends, cooperating. I am optimistic about the future of tourism cooperation with Greece and that it will not be one-sided , there will be a serious tourist flow from Greece to Turkey, which is an established brand in tourism,” he concluded.