The numbers are impressive for tourist traffic in Rhodes and the other Dodecanese islands, which is developing dynamically and will continue to do so in the coming months.
The data generated so far show that the season is the best in the history of Rhodian tourism, while the traffic on the other Dodecanese islands is equally high.
This indicates that the month with the largest tourist traffic of all time is August this year, surpassing all expectations regarding arrivals at the island’s airport.
The official data announced by Fraport Greece shows that August saw the most tourists of all time who went to Rhodes, regarding the monthly tourist traffic recorded for the airport of our island and in fact, compared to the same month last year, the percentage increase exceeded 20 %.
In particular, last month, 616,607 tourists arrived on charter flights in Rhodes, compared to 509,344 in August 2023, a year in which tourist traffic increased and was quite satisfactory.
This year, not only a new record of tourist traffic was recorded but according to the data, the growth rate reached 21%, because we have 107,263 tourists more than last year. Thus, August this year came out as the best month and 2024 as the best year.
The tourists
Based on the data, the English are once again the best visitors to the island, as they are the first, while the Germans take second place, followed by the Poles, Italians and Israelis.
British arrivals in Rhodes on charter flights were 134,450, Germans 91,166 and Poles 44,580, with the top three continuing to hold steady.
In terms of passenger traffic through the airport, it amounted to 1,162,084 visitors on international flights compared to 987,710 in the same month last year (an increase of 17.7%), while through our airport, with domestic flight passengers, 1,264 .300 vs. 1,081,909 last year in the same month (up 16.9%).
It is worth noting that, since the beginning of the year, 4,293,436 tourists were transported through “Diagoras” airport compared to 3,751,634 last year (an increase of 14.4%), while the total passenger traffic in the same period , approached 5 million people.
According to the data, within eight months, 4,885,541 passengers traveled to the island’s airport compared to 4,306,555 last year, which recorded 13.4%.
The flights served by our island’s airport also increased, as it reached 7,133 (arrivals and departures) compared to 6,504 last year in the same month, marking an increase of 9.7%. Since the beginning of the year, flights serving the island’s airport reached 26,963 (arrivals and departures) compared to 24,787 last year in August, with an increase of 8.8%.
In total, domestic and international flights totaled 8,079 last month, compared to 7,352 last year and the increase reached 9.9%, while since the beginning of the year, it reached 32,731 compared to 30,117 last year at the same time, which formed an increase to 8.7 %.
The excellent progress of this period was recently mentioned in his remarks by the Deputy Mayor for Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Rhodes, Giorgos Toppos, who expressed his satisfaction by pointing out that from January to now, an increase in tourist traffic in order. of 17% was recorded
Sea tourism
In total, 261,646 cruise ship passengers have reached the island of Rhodes so far. The most impressive thing about the cruise line, however, according to Mr. Toppos, is that October will break all the records of all previous months, with 59 scheduled cruise ship calls, more in any month. In particular for yachting, there is an increase in boat arrivals of the order of 25%, which is great in terms of alternative marine tourism.
He also mentioned that they are exploring new markets and planning some actions for Asia, especially for China, India, Bahrain and South Korea. In them they have a presence in the exhibits, where the destination is presented as they set the first groups from China and India to arrive from November 15.
As he noted, these are the visitors who come to our island during the winter and thus, we can tentatively talk about extending the tourist season, but something that still needs a lot of work, as well as cooperation and unity to all involved. in tourism agencies.
At the same time, they will further strengthen the “traditional” markets in Europe, such as France, which this year did not meet expectations. They are also trying to approach the American market and talk to the diaspora. They plan some actions and synergies to attract more visitors from America, expatriate and non-American.
The figures for visitors from Turkey are also impressive, because the tourist traffic from there, this year, shows an increase of 55% and until now, 80 thousand visitors have arrived.
Regarding alternative tourism, introduced, they made several promotional actions to promote it, such as maritime, cultural, walking, gastronomic, conference and religious. For these forms of tourism, they make some promotional videos that present the wealth of the island, so that it becomes more attractive to certain groups of visitors.
Regarding the repeaters, they implemented a new program for their award, because it is the best advertisement for the island – in fact, so far they have made about a hundred bronze, silver, gold and diamond awards, depending on the number of visits. , which is a challenge for our guests.
Rhodes will not forget the celebration of the world tourism day, where they planned a three-day event in collaboration with the region and the vice-regional governor Christos Michalakis as well as the Federation of Cultural Associations.