Greek islands launch special visa program to allow thousands more visitors

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Officials on the Greek island of Rhodes opened a brand new trip visa terminal for Turkish visitors on Monday as a part of a diplomatic effort to ease long-standing tensions between the 2 nations.

The limited-access visa will allow Turks to go to 10 Greek islands for up to per week with out having to apply for full entry to the European Union’s passport-free journey zone, often called the Schengen space.

NATO members Greece and Turkey launched a number of initiatives final 12 months to attempt to sidestep decades-old disputes — principally over sea boundaries and mineral rights within the Aegean Sea— to give attention to commerce.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in December to signal a sequence of bilateral cooperation agreements in Athens. Mitsotakis will go to Turkey subsequent month. “The express visa can be issued not only in summer, but all year round. The measure is designed to boost tourism in areas and at times of the year when there is not a lot of traffic, so it will help the local economies,” Mitsotakis wrote in a weekly on-line publish Sunday.

Granted at taking part Greek ports, the brand new visa will price 60 euros and can embrace a passport examine and fingerprint recording, whereas visitors is not going to be allowed to journey onto different EU member states, Greek officers stated.

“The new system is ready and there is a lot of demand from Turkish visitors. But there were no boats scheduled to arrive today. We will have arrivals later this week,” Vassilis Vayiannakis, head of the Rhodes Port Fund, instructed the AP.

The islands within the trip visa program all lie close to the Turkish shoreline and likewise embrace Lesbos, Limnos, Chios, Samos, Leros, Kalymnos, Kos, Symi and Kastellorizo, with the smaller islands due to take part June.

Turkey has lengthy sought more relaxed journey guidelines for its residents visiting the EU in alternate for its cooperation with member states of the bloc that embrace efforts to curb unlawful immigration. Tourism is an important business for the Greek economic system. The nation welcomed 32.7 million visitors final 12 months, elevating 20.5 billion euros, in accordance to central financial institution knowledge.