By Kana McNiff
The Greek Wildfires, beginning in July of 2023, have forced tourists and residents to evacuate from their homes and hotels as fires enclosed the island. Approximately 16,000 people were transported across land, while about 3,000 were transported by sea. The fires were mainly on the Greek islands of Corfu and Rhodes, as well as Athens. Unfortunately, five people were killed and more than twenty were injured by the fires.
The damage from the fires reached 135,000 hectares (107,369 square feet) of land in just twelve days. Although there is some speculation that the extreme summer heat was the cause of these fires, the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection of Greece, Vassilis Kikilias, has something different to say. He told a news conference in late July, “[a vast majority of the fires] were caused by human hands,” and said they were “arsons either by criminal negligence or by intention.”
Many tourists, especially from the UK, reported feeling “abandoned” by their government because of the lack of support and lack of effort there was to evacuate their citizens from the country. Hundreds of tourists spent multiple nights on the Rhodes airport floor, waiting for the earliest flight home. However, the lack of coordination and planes made it extremely difficult to get everyone home.
Tourists, however, aren’t the only ones suffering. It’s been a difficult time for the Greek economy with the decline of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with their most popular tourist destinations in shambles, the situation looks bleak. Many businesses along these areas depend on tourism to make money, and we will certainly see a decline in Greek tourism after this tragedy.
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