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The tourists will spend their holiday in isolation as part of an experiment aimed at reviving the travel sector. Photograph: Louiza Vradi/Reuters
The tourists will spend their holiday in isolation as part of an experiment aimed at reviving the travel sector. Photograph: Louiza Vradi/Reuters

‘This is all we could get’: Dutch tourists arrive in Rhodes for locked-down holiday

This article is more than 2 years old

In experiment organised by Dutch government, travellers will have to take regular Covid tests and are barred from leaving resort

A regime that might, in more normal times, resemble a boot camp has been happily embraced by 189 Dutch tourists who traded lockdown in the Netherlands for eight days of voluntary confinement at a Greek beach resort.

In an experiment devised by travel industry experts determined not to lose another season to Covid-19, the tourists arrived on the Aegean island of Rhodes on Monday as part of a test run to see if safe holidays can be arranged during the pandemic.

“I’m very excited,” said Amy Smulders, 25, a graphic designer who travelled with her sister, beaming beneath her face mask as she waited for her luggage in Rhodes. “It feels very strange to be here, but [I’m] really excited to go on holiday.”

With Europe in lockdown, the eight-day sojourn comes with some unyielding rules.

In the case of the group booked into the Mitsis Grand Hotel Beach on Monday, that will mean taking in the Aegean sea from the terraces of their room, not leaving the resort to even walk on the beach, and fraternising with no other guests – the latter facilitated by the fact that they will be the only holidaymakers there. Strict social distancing will be monitored at all times.

But for €399 (£345) each, participants do get “all-inclusive” access to the pool, restaurants and other facilities at the resort.

As their flight from Amsterdam touched down at Rhodes airport, Greek media had amassed with microphones at the ready. “I don’t have swimming pools at home and a pub to drink beer … so this is much better,” enthused one young man when asked by Open TV what he thought of the restrictions.

A young woman, flanked by two female friends, suggested that in the worst-case scenario, she would spend the week in the pool “with my rubber flamingo and a cocktail in my hand”.

Aged from 18 to 70, the tourists had been among an estimated 25,000 applicants for the trip organised in conjunction with the Dutch government. All were armed with negative Covid-19 tests, which they will have to undergo again three days before departure, along with a rapid test on the day of their return.

“I could never imagine that, but this is all we could get right now and we will enjoy it,” said Terry Oorschot, 49, an IT worker.

Tourism-dependent Greece is eager to draw people back after a devastating 2020 during which visitor numbers plunged to a quarter of the previous year’s level.

“It’s very important for people to start coming to us,” said Konstantinos Taraslias, the deputy mayor for tourism in Rhodes, Greece’s fourth biggest island, which caters almost exclusively to foreigners.

The Dutch tour operator Sunweb said it hoped the experiment would show that people can still enjoy a holiday, even with strict safety regimes in place, and pave the way for tourism to reopen.

“For the travel industry, it’s extremely important. I don’t think a lot of companies will survive another summer without travelling,” said Sunweb’s chief executive, Mattijs ten Brink. Confining people to resorts, however, was unlikely to be the solution in the long run, he said.

Rhodes residents had mixed feelings. “I don’t think it really benefits restaurant businesses like ours,” said Giannis Chalikias, the general manager of a group of restaurants on the island. “It’s the first experiment, certainly there’ll be a second and a third, and at some point things can return to how they were.”

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